Raleigh city worker becomes NC's second coronavirus death

Adrian Grubbs, who was in his 30s and lived in Harnett County, died Wednesday, his wife said. He suffered from high blood pressure, she said, and state officials said the underlying medical condition put him at higher risk from the virus.

Grubbs became sick on March 13 and immediately quarantined himself inside the family's Dunn home, his wife said. An initial test for the coronavirus was inconclusive, and results from a second test didn't come back for more than a week.

"Between Monday and Wednesday [last week], it was like a light switch. His temperature was going up and down," she said. "One minute, he was feeling OK. The next minute, he was feeling bad."

When he developed coughing spells and had trouble breathing, he was admitted to Betsy Johnson Hospital last Friday, she said.

Only then, his wife said, did Grubbs get the results of his coronavirus test – positive. When he started having severe problems with his lungs, he was transferred Sunday to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.

But Grubbs had swelling on his brain, and doctors told his wife there was little they could do.

She and the couple's three children remain in quarantine, but she said they all feel fine and are not showing any COVID-19 symptoms.

"My husband, one thing about him, he was a family man. He cared about us," his wife said. "When he was quarantining himself, he didn't want us anywhere around him."

Grubbs was a supervisor for Raleigh's Solid Waste Services division, where he had worked for 17 years. He graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh in 2014.

"This is an incredibly sad day for the City of Raleigh. We have lost one of our own, and our hearts are broken," Raleigh City Manager Ruffin Hall said in a statement. "He was loved by his family and friends and a dedicated servant of this community."

Grubbs is the second North Carolina resident to die in the COVID-19 pandemic, according to state officials.