(TNS) - Ramona Moll remembers grappling with an elderly dementia patient who showed all the signs of COVID-19: fever, difficulty breathing and a persistent cough. The patient had tried to bite her while the staff struggled to keep him from tearing off his mask and oxygen tubes, she said.

Days later, Moll said she began to develop a cough and grew so weak she could barely speak or climb stairs. She wound up hospitalized herself and tested positive for COVID-19. She became one of the first employees at UC Davis Medical Center to test positive for the disease.

Officials with the hospital say they investigated Moll’s case as a “possible exposure” but could find no records to support her claims. Moll was incensed at the suggestion by hospital administrators that she contracted the disease “in the community” and not at UC Davis.

“I did everything I was told to do and instructed to do,” she said. “So that (to claim) I got it ‘from the community,’ unless it’s in the wind, I got it at work. That’s insulting. By saying that, you’re implying even healthcare workers are ignoring the recommendations.”

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