Mary Hurtado, 93, left, with her son, Trinidad Navarro. The two Baker City residents died in July after testing positive for COVID-19.

For more than a year, Chuck Brown and his sister, Hope Brown, worried about COVID-19 breaching the Baker City home where their mother, Mary Hurtado, lived with four relatives.

And for more than a year, the siblings’ concerns were kept at bay.

But then July arrived.

And when the virus did get into that home, it wreaked havoc.

All five residents got sick, four of them seriously.

The Browns’ brother, Trinidad Navarro, 59, died on July 14 at Saint Alphonsus Hospital in Boise.

Their mother, Mary, died on July 29, also at Saint Alphonsus Hospital in Boise. She was 93.

Their sister, Donna Valentine, 65, spent time in the hospital, as did their nephew, Greg Valentine, 42, who’s Donna’s son.

Both Trinidad and Mary had underlying conditions.

But the youngest member of the household, Carlos Grove, 21, who is Chuck’s grandson, Mary’s great-grandson and Trinidad’s great-nephew, believes both would still be alive if not for the virus.

“It killed my (great) uncle and it killed my great-grandmother,” said Grove, who was the first member of the household to feel ill, in late June. He tested positive for COVID-19 on July 7.

“It’s a deadly disease,” Grove said. “If that isn’t enough to scare people, honest to God, there’s really no hope of getting out of this pandemic.”

Trinidad and Mary are among the 18 Baker County residents whose deaths are related to COVID-19 infections.

Although the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) doesn’t list names of people who died, the agency’s reports coincide with the family’s situation — a 59-year-old Baker County man who died July 14 at a Boise hospital, and a 93-year-old woman who died July 29 at Saint Alphonsus Hospital in Boise.

The family’s experience is not limited to the virus’ potentially fatal consequences.

So far as they can tell, the problems started with what’s known as a “breakthrough” case — a fully vaccinated person who becomes infected.

Carlos became sick in late June, about six weeks after he said he received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

He said he had trouble breathing the night of June 26.

The next day he went to Saint Alphonsus Medical Center in Baker City. He said he was told he had a sinus infection.

Carlos said he thought at the time that he had contracted COVID-19, because his symptoms were much more severe than he had had with colds.

“I felt a million times worse than any cold I have ever had,” he said.

Carlos returned to the home he shared with Trinidad, Mary, Donna and Greg.

Chuck Brown, 63, said Donna was the next person to get sick.

Donna and Trinidad were taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Saint Alphonsus Hospital in Boise on July 7, Chuck said.

Trinidad tested positive that day.

Mary, who tested positive on July 8, was taken to the Boise hospital later in the month after spending about at week in the Baker City hospital.

Among the five members of the household, Carlos was the only one fully vaccinated, Chuck Brown said.

Donna had her first dose of the Moderna vaccine (which requires two doses) in February, but she suffers from lupus, and Chuck Brown said the inoculation caused a flare up in her condition, so she did not receive a second shot.

Neither Mary, Trinidad nor Greg was vaccinated.

Although Donna spent two days in the hospital after contracting COVID-19, she has since recovered, something her siblings, Chuck and Hope, who’s 52, attribute to her being partially vaccinated.

Greg Valentine spent about 10 days in the Baker City hospital after he developed pneumonia, Hope said.

Chuck and Hope said they understood that their mother was much more vulnerable to the virus due to her age — about 74% of the 2,877 Oregonians who have died after testing positive were 70 or older, and 50% were 80 or older.

But they said Mary rarely left her house, and she believed she was protected as a result.

“That was not the case,” Chuck said.

Chuck, who has lived in Baker City since 1971, said he tried to shelter his mother by, for instance, leaving her groceries on her back door rather than entering her home after doing her shopping.

He said he felt more confident after getting both doses of the Moderna vaccine in March.

Hope, who lives in Indiana, was fully vaccinated in April, receiving two doses of the Moderna vaccine. She said she decided to get vaccinated despite having contracted COVID-19 twice, once in September 2020 in Indiana and again this March in Texas. She traveled to Baker City in early July to help Chuck care for their mother and their other relatives.

Both credit their vaccination with protecting them from COVID-19 while they were spending time in a household where five people had been infected.

“I was with them every day trying to take care of them,” Chuck said.

Hope said both she and Chuck wore masks while caring for their mother and other relatives, even though both siblings are vaccinated and, in Hope’s case, she has antibodies from being infected.

Hope said she wishes more people who are eligible to be vaccinated — vaccines aren’t yet approved for children younger than 12 — will get the shots.

“Look what happened — we lost two people in one household,” she said. “And it could have been even worse.”