
Jaime's phone started ringing at 1am on August 1. Half asleep as it blurted at her from the dark, she missed the call.
They called again at 7am. It was QLD Health informing her that her 12-year-old twins had tested positive for COVID-19.
The whole family had rushed off to get tested the day before, after being notified that the boy's karate gym and school had been listed as exposure sites.
"An ambulance will be arriving to take your whole family to hospital quarantine," she was informed.
"It could arrive in the next 10 minutes," the person on the other end of the phone added.
Watch: The COVID-19 symptom you need to be on the lookout for. Post continues after video.
Panicked, Jaime and her husband rushed around their Brisbane home packing and trying to rearrange their world. They'd be gone for at least two weeks, they'd been told.
What about the dogs?
After realising that they had nowhere to send the dogs, they called the QLD COVID helpline and it was agreed that just one parent would escort the boys to hospital. The other could stay home with their seven-year-old daughter and the pets.
Jaime's husband volunteered. She was the only one vaccinated, but had had Hodgkin's lymphoma a few years prior so was at a higher risk of getting seriously unwell.
At first the boys, who were both unsymptomatic, were super excited by the prospect of an ambulance ride and hospital stay. What an adventure!

Up until that point, the Brisbane family hadn't known anyone with the virus and as Jaime told Mamamia, "we kind of felt that we were in a nice little safe bubble here in Brisbane."
Top Comments