Albuquerque father speaks out after son diagnosed with coronavirus

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A warning from an Albuquerque parent, the coronavirus isn’t just attacking the elderly. His 29-year-old son is now fighting for his life.

“If it can get Billy it can get anybody,” says Mike Ross. He tells us his son is young and in good health but, he’s in ICU. To make matters worse he’s also alone because no one is allowed to visit.

29-year-old Billy Ross was recently diagnosed with coronavirus. “He went to the emergency room, the next day they admitted him that day and the next day he was in ICU, the day after that they put him on a ventilator,” Mike says.

The Albuquerque native now lives and works in Denver, his family is still here in New Mexico. “As a dad, it’s miserable for me I’d give anything to be by his side right now and be there with him,” Mike says.

Mike says about a week ago his son called him not feeling well. “He was in a horrible fever, horrible sweats, he couldn’t sleep. The cough that he had was awful. I could hear it when he coughed, it didn’t sound like anything else I had ever heard before,” Ross says.

Right now, Billy is in an induced coma but Ross says he’s making progress. He’s stable, it’s very slow but steady progressing but he seems to be getting better slowly but surely,” Mike says.

Now Mike is sharing his son’s story to remind younger people, the virus doesn’t discriminate.”I think too many people think this is just affecting older people. Billy is in the prime of his health,” Mike says.

He hopes it’s a wake-up call, to stay home and practice social distancing, so no other parent will have to watch their child suffer from afar. “Just a couple weeks ago people were thinking it wasn’t real it was a hoax and people weren’t taking it seriously I want people to know it’s very real and it hurts,” Mike says.

Mike says he thinks his son might have gotten the virus from a friend who stayed at his home and his son’s friend and roommate, have self quarantined as a precaution, but don’t have any symptoms. Mike says his son also doesn’t have any underlying health conditions.