Today marks five years since the Holland America ship MS Zaandam traversed the Panama Canal under cover of darkness, many on board sick with COVID-19 at the advent of a global pandemic.
Four had already died among 1,200 passengers, many elderly, and nearly 600 crew on what was planned as a monthlong cruise along the South American coast starting March 8, 2020, in Buenos Aires.
World travelers Patrick and Della Edrington of Culpeper were on the Zaandam as it was struck down with novel coronavirus, afloat at sea with no safe harbor in site. The misadventure has forever changed the lives of the local couple, navigating long-term health challenges brought on by the illness.
Della, in an interview earlier this month in their home, with Patrick present, recalled passing through the Miraflores Locks on March 29, 2020. The ship had been circling the waters for days, turned away in Chile, Peru and Argentina.
“We had to get through the Panama Canal to get home,” Della said. “By the way, we went through the brand new locks, the big new ones. I don’t know anybody else who’s ever been through the new locks.”
The couple in 2016 had actually toured the site, she said, under completely different circumstances. This time, they were in survival mode.
“Panama had a law that a plague ship, a sick ship with COVID passengers, could not transit the canal,” Della said. “After a couple days of intense negotiations, they snuck us through in the middle of the night, closed the canal to all traffic and we had to draw our curtains and not peek outside, and the ship ran dark. It’s worth a movie.”
That dramatic deployment, along with the entire ill-fated voyage, is detailed in a 2022 book, “Cabin Fever: The Harrowing Journey of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic,” by journalists Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin. Though the Edringtons were not interviewed for the book, Della’s copy is marked up with underlined passages and personal notes about their experiences.
“Never before had a cruise liner passed through the canal in under 10 hours. This crossing was tracking closer to eight,” a passage in the book states. “For passengers, the progress through the canal — made mysterious by the darkness and hushed voices — felt like a huge step toward reaching the United States.”
Della said, “The officials who made the humane decision to allow the Zaandam passage through the canal deserve our deepest gratitude. I vividly remember exiting the canal, checking the ship’s status on the TV channel, and seeing that we were racing north at nearly maximum speed — only to arrive off the coast of Florida and wait for permission to go home.”
She and Patrick reported they were sick just four days earlier on March 25 — 10 days after stopping in Punta Arenas, Chile, where they believe the virus came aboard. The situation in their cabin turned desperate.
“The first symptoms were cough and the low-grade fever and eventually we lost our sense of taste and smell, which still has not come back,” Della said. “As Pat got worse, he got to the point where he was in and out of consciousness.
“I was ugly sick,” she added. “In order to retrieve the food from the door, I had to crawl, I couldn’t walk anymore.”
The food trays were so heavy because she felt so weak, Della said. It was her lowest point. Patrick was even more ill.
“He had tried to get up and fell and when he fell, he fell on top of the desk and couldn’t move,” Della said. “He laid on the desk for several hours until eventually I pushed a chair over and put him into the chair, and he was in the chair with his head on the desk for a couple more hours and eventually I pushed the chair over to the side of the bed and pushed him onto the bed and then he just laid on the bed and didn’t move.”
Della believes she is referenced in chapter 7 of “Cabin Fever” in a section about an improvised call center, “There were so many calls, and passengers seemed like they were becoming desperate. The confinement was taking its toll. One grandmotherly-sounding woman began to unravel. “You need to stop this,” she pleaded. “You’re giving us too much food!”
All she wanted was some saltines, in short supply on the sick ship.
Since the cruise, Patrick, retired from a long career as a controller at Continental Teves, has lived a new reality, diagnosed with rapid onset Parkinson’s disease caused by infection/COVID-19. He was “freezing” in doorways, a symptom of the neurological movement disorder, said his wife.
In June 2020, three months after returning from the cruise, Dr. George Stergis, a neurologist who works locally, prescribed to Patrick carbidopa-levodopa, the primary medication for treating Parkinson’s disease, Della said. He told them to watch the 1990 film “Awakenings,” based on the 1973 book by Dr. Oliver Sacks about patients who similarly fell ill following a 1920s epidemic.
UVA Health Dr. Alex Dalrymple ordered a comprehensive set of tests, Della said. A brain MRI showed no significant abnormalities while another scan confirmed a dopamine deficit consistent with Parkinson’s disease, she said.
“The abrupt onset of Mr. Edrington’s symptoms following a severe infection and the lack of any prodromal or early features preceding the infection led me to believe that his true diagnosis is Parkinson’s disease resulting from COVID-19 infection,” Dalrymple said. Parkinson’s is known as a slow-progressing disease, Della said.
“Patrick’s case was different. It was a sudden, rapid onset. He walked onto the ship, was seriously ill with COVID-19, and stumbled off the ship,” she said.
Today, it affects his movement and memory.
“Sometimes it feels like I am pulling an anchor behind me,” he said.
The Edringtons were finally allowed to get off the Zaandam on April 4, 2020, along the Florida coast. More than a dozen passengers were taken by ambulance at the end of the cruise to an ICU, but not Patrick. His fever had broken, and it was believed they had been through the worst of it. The Edringtons passed the ship’s medical test and could disembark.
Their life would never be the same.
“He was stumbling around at that point,” Della said of her husband. “I feel quite certain the neurological damage had already occurred.”
Parkinson’s disease is progressive, but for six months preceding their voyage on the Zaandam, he showed no symptoms, she said.
“We traveled to the Middle East, hiking eight miles in Petra and riding camels in Wadi Rum. We volunteered for six weeks to restore coral reefs in Bonaire and took a cross-country Amtrak train to see the Grand Canyon. We came home to Culpeper to rest and play golf,” Della said.
Getting off the Zaandam, Patrick fell in customs and hit his head badly.
“They wrapped his head in a big bandage like some guy in a war zone, and they wanted us to go back on board the ship and I refused. I had a literal panic attack and refused to go back,” Della said.
Holland America dispatched a bus to the dock to transport them to the airport.
“Just the two of us through Fort Lauderdale with a police escort, cars in front and back,” she recalled. “The roads were all shut down, there was no traffic, it looked just like OJ Simpson, but it’s Pat and Della in a bus.”
The couple flew to Atlanta and then to Washington, D.C. The airport parking lots were empty, she recalled, as all flights were canceled. They eventually located their vehicle and made it back to Culpeper close to midnight.
“I opened the door and Pat fell out of the car onto the grass and couldn’t get up and I just laid down beside him and called 911. They came and helped us get into the house.”
After the cruise, like for most people, came a surreal period of isolation, she said. They finally found a new normal by beginning to travel again, but with support of their family and friends and after years of medical tests, treatment and exercise.
A godsend has been Powell Wellness Center, a certified medical facility near their home. The center’s Rock Steady Boxing for individuals with Parkinson’s symptoms has been especially beneficial, Della said. Personal trainer Bobby Zajkowski leads the program and has personally helped the couple as they navigate their new journey.
“I thank God for bringing Bobby into our lives. For nearly five years, they have worked together on balance and strength,” Della said. “But Bobby is more than a trainer, he is a companion and aid to both of us. He carries Christmas decorations up and patio umbrellas down to the basement. His presence enables us to continue living independently.”
Patrick participates in Rock Steady twice a week at Powell.
“It’s good for me,” he said.
Zajkowski, in an interview at the center, said they just have fun, noting it’s non-contact. Patrick was one of the first to join the program that was supposed to launch in 2020, but got pushed back due to COVID-19.
What kind of progress has Patrick made in Rock Steady?
“Night and day,” said Zajkowski. “Simple walking from A to B, sitting, getting up. Standing is hard as people age, the strength, endurance is not there.”
He has worked in their home, allowing Patrick to navigate his surroundings. When they first started working together, it took 17 minutes for Patrick to get from the kitchen to the TV room, said Della, shuffling his feet.
“The first few sessions he could barely walk from here to the corner without shuffling his feet every few steps,” the trainer said. “Now, he probably goes to sleep hearing my voice in his head—high knees, big steps. Because if your knees go high, your feet follow.”
Zajkowski said he rarely sees Patrick shuffling his feet anymore.
“It’s just movement.”
Rock Steady, with two sets of classes offered weekly, is geared the motion disorder with 30-some individualized symptoms, Zajkowski said.
“It’s very broad. I just know exercise is the best thing for it,” he said.
Della said the program keeps Patrick moving.
“He just never gives up. It would be so easy for him to go into the TV room and sit down and never move again, but Powell keeps him going and that’s what allows up to continue having the quality of life that we do,” she said.
Asked what he most misses since his illness, Patrick paused at length.
“Driving, scuba diving and coral restoration volunteering,” he said.
While the couple can no longer scuba dive to the coral farms, they still travel. In fact, they are currently abroad with family in Bonaire in the Caribbean, where they hope to try out snorkeling. They’ve been visiting the island for 25 years to volunteer with Reef Renewal Bonaire, Della said.
The couple, who will be married 45 years in June, confirmed they had taken another voyage by sea since the Zaandam. The seven-week cruise in 2023 started in Florida through the Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal to Cape Town, South Africa. It too made headlines.
“War broke out when Hamas attacked Israel, and we once again found ourselves sailing in waters patrolled by warships,” Della said. “Our family has decided they need to keep a little bit closer track of us since we started traveling again. They tend to invite themselves to keep us company.”
She said she prefers traveling with family, at this point.
