Former Councilman Recovering from Battle with COVID-19

In an interview with Pasadena Now, former District 4 City Councilman Steve Haderlein said on Tuesday that he and his daughter were infected with the Coronavirus.

Haderlein served on the City Council from 1999 to 2011 and currently sits on the Rose Bowl Operating Company.

According to Haderlein, his daughter also tested positive, and began to feel better several days before him. His wife never exhibited symptoms of the virus.

Haderlein remains in quarantine.

Haderlein said his symptoms lasted almost exactly 14 days. During that time he experienced serious fatigue that resulted in him sleeping 14 to 16 hours a day, headaches and a fever.

“I wouldn’t call it a serious fever, but nonetheless a fever,” Haderlein said. “I never really got the chest pains and the coughing. I guess not everybody gets every symptom. I would say 10 of the 14 days I was sleeping most of the day. I was really sort of out of it.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control up to 70 percent of the people infected with the virus experience fatigue.

Haderlein said the virus did not feel like the regular flu.

“It was much more — at least the set of symptoms that I had was much more fatiguing,” Haderlein said. “I was able to do some work from home and some work, but I was limited to a few hours. And then after that it was, it was almost all sleeping or napping or on my way to taking a nap. I mean, it was very fatiguing.”

Doctors at Huntington Hospital tested Haderlein on March 23 after he woke up at 2 a.m. with a fever and the symptoms began to line up. The test came back positive a few days later.

He was told to monitor his symptoms and his fever.

“Fortunately I wasn’t having trouble breathing and I didn’t have a real high fever. I guess you’d call it a mild set of symptoms compared to what some of the people are unfortunately struggling with.”

Haderlein has not been retested, but says he is at 100 percent. Due to the lack of tests, the city is not using a testing protocol to determine if a patient is recovered.

According to Dr. Ying Ying Goh patients are cleared when they meet the CDC criteria of seven days after symptom onset or 72 hours after fever resolution and symptom improvement, whichever is longer.

Goh called the criteria subjective.

After he discovered he was infected with the virus, the former councilman allowed his employer at La Salle High School to use his name when officials there informed the school community that an employee had tested positive.

The school provided a timeline of Haderlein’s last days on campus before distance learning began. It was determined Haderlein probably was infected after his last day on campus.

The city’s health department determined the risk of spread of COVID-19 in the La Salle community due was low.

Haderlein told Pasadena Now that a week before he began experiencing symptoms he traveled back east to help his daughter move home from college.

Still he says he is not sure when he caught the virus.

“I could’ve just picked it up around here,” Haderlein said. “It’s hard to know. That’s why it’s so important for everybody to quarantine and wash their hands and all that stuff.”

Haderlein said the symptoms were worse than a previous bout he had with pneumonia.

Haderlein said although he never experienced serious symptoms, he was worried about his symptoms advancing.

“When you’re really not feeling well and maybe you start coughing or the temperature goes to 100.5 — not in the danger zone, but you’re kind of getting there, you start thinking oh, I really hope this doesn’t get worse.”

The 56-year-old Haderlein who also coaches at La Salle remains in good shape which may have helped him fight off the virus.

“I would say that the hospital workers and people giving the test. those people are superheroes. I mean, to be out there working, knowing what they’re dealing with and still get up in the morning and then go to work. Those people are superheroes.”

Managing Editor André Coleman contributed to this story