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Ten days after Dr. Shahinaz Soliman, a Torrance physician of family medicine, gave a patient his annual physical, an unexpected role reversal — from doctor to early coronavirus victim — began.

“I woke up with a massive splitting headache, severe body aches, fatigue like I never had in my life and a 103-degree fever,” Soliman said via email.

“What is happening?” she wondered. “That’s not possible!”

But she already suspected it was.

Five days after his physical, the patient had called her office back, complaining of flu symptoms.

Two days before his physical, the patient disclosed, he was among the guests at a March 8 birthday party for former Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Susan Brooks held at Trump National Golf Club. Several attendees had already tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Soliman had already seen an article in the Daily Breeze about the early cluster of cases connected to the party and tested him. Five days later, a test confirmed he was positive.

Soliman canceled her appointments, administered a nasal swab to herself and had her son — wearing protective clothing — hand deliver it to a lab.

But by that night, unable to breathe and with a raging fever, she took herself off to the emergency room at Torrance Memorial Medical Center, where two nurses met her at curbside and took her into the hospital via a separate entrance.

Inside, Soliman told a nurse she suspected her illness was COVID-19.

“She dropped the blood pressure cuff and took two steps back before she started to collect herself again,” Soliman said. “I felt there was a lot of fear in the beginning.”

Soliman was escorted to an isolation room for three hours while a battery of tests, including chest X-rays, were performed.

Around midnight, a doctor told her she had regular pneumonia and could go home.

As a precaution, upon arrival, Soliman began a medicinal regimen that included an anti-malarial drug some doctors have prescribed for coronavirus patients, but can also cause liver problems.

At 7 a.m. the next day, her symptoms worsening, the emergency room doctor called.

“You need to come back right away,” the doctor said. “You have COVID-19 pneumonia. You need to be admitted.”

Pneumonia caused by the coronavirus is distinguishable on X-rays from garden variety pneumonia, Soliman said.

“They missed it,” she said. “They didn’t have enough experience dealing with COVID-19 patients.”

“I was feeling that I was dancing on a fine line between life and death,” Soliman recalled when she was admitted. “All my symptoms were worsening.”

Soliman was hospitalized for nine days, adding she experienced “amazing” care after her diagnosis.

So, well, novel, was the novel coronavirus to medical staff, they shot a video of Soliman’s chronic cough, to help educate colleagues.

“Hey, this feels very strange,” Soliman recalled thinking. “I am a patient.”

She had plenty of time for reflection.

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