Family shocked after 41-year-old father of 4 dies of COVID-19

ACWORTH, Ga. — A metro Atlanta family is in shock after a 41-year-old father of four died of COVID-19.

Channel 2′s Lori Wilson was in Acworth, where Rigoberto Manzano-Tiendo was a day laborer. Manzano-Tiendo’s 18-year-old son, Cesar, said his father had diabetes and was in chemotherapy treatment for cancer when he started to feel sick.

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“At first, they were telling him it was just the symptoms from his chemotherapy,” Cesar Manzano-Tiendo said. “He started losing his sense of smell and taste.”

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Cesar said his father was afraid to go to the hospital, but he convinced Manzano-Tiendo to go. He was put on a ventilator. Manzano-Tiendo’s wife was also hospitalized with COVID-19. She tried to visit her husband in the hospital before he died, but was turned away.

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“They told her she was able to visit him, and then when she got up to there to the door, they told her she couldn’t see him,” Cesar said.

Cesar now says he will have to quit school to take care of his family. His mother does not work, and he said he now has to make sure she and his 7-, 11- and 13-year-old siblings are taken care of.

“Now I have to actually move on and make my dad’s hopes and dreams a reality,” Cesar said. " And everything he wished for, I’m going to do it in the memory of him.”

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