Hi Jay...it's ironic that you brought up fungal pneumonia, the guy in the bed next to me in the ER had that...I heard him tell the doctor that he'd been battling it for awhile!
While I was in the ER, the doc sent in a respiratory therapist, she gave me a breathing treatment and a sputum collection bottle...do you think they'll culture what they collected? I hope so...that would let me know if it's fungal right? In 2004, my Dad went to the ER with pneumonia and they admitted him to the hospital, he wasn't in a quarantine room or anything and 10 days later, the sample cultured out, it showed he had Neisseria meningitidis, also known as meningococcus, very deadly (mortality rate like 90%, for an otherwise healthy person), they gave Dad his last rites dozens of times over the next 3 months, he lost a lung but I'm very happy to say that he's still with us!
Seriously though, they had to track down and treat EVERYONE that he came in contact with.....hundreds of people! And, we were very up close and personal before it cultured out....
