FDNY paramedic with COVID-19 now on ventilator, family says

By Laura French

NEW YORK — An FDNY paramedic who has publicly shared her experiencing after being hospitalized for COVID-19 is now on a ventilator after her condition worsened over the weekend, her family says.

FDNY Paramedic Christell Cadet, 34, told CNN in an interview Friday that she believed she had been exposed through coworkers who had come in contact with infected patients, as she had been on light duty and hadn’t treated any patients over the last few weeks.

Cadet, who has asthma, said she first began having symptoms last Tuesday and had been hospitalized since last Wednesday. She said her asthma is normally well-controlled and she hadn’t expected she would be severely sickened by the virus.

Cadet’s family told the New York Daily News on Tuesday that the paramedic has been transferred to ICU and is sedated and breathing through a ventilator after her condition worsened over the last few days, and that they are unable to visit her due to restrictions put in place to control the pandemic.

Cadet is one of 46 FDNY members who have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Monday, as reported by Commissioner Daniel Nigro. Nigro said that the positive cases include firefighters, EMS personnel and civilian staffers, and that two members were hospitalized.

Support for FDNY EMS providers affected by the COVID-19 crisis can be sent to the EMS FDNY Help Fund.