Two Cass County police officers give back after recovering from COVID-19

CASS COUNTY, Mich. – After battling COVID-19, two Cass County police officers are now paying it forward by donating plasma to help others who are struggling with the virus.

Captain Thomas Jacobs and Undersheriff Clinton Roach of the Cass County Sheriff’s Department were both diagnosed with the virus in March after feeling sick the same week after they had finished a department briefing on their COVID-19 response.

Roach spent nearly a month fighting it while quarantined at home, while Jacobs, who is diabetic and has COPD, ended up hospitalized for nearly 20 days and feared for his life.

“We met with the shifts and debriefed with them before I actually started coming down with symptoms,” Jacobs says. “And I told them, because most of the guys are younger than we are, I said ‘you know, you guys will probably have mild symptoms if you contract this, if I get it I could die’ and by the time I made my first day in the hospital those were my thoughts, that I very likely couldn’t return to work, might not return back home.”

Both men, now back at work and fully recovered are giving plasma that could have life-saving antibodies for those still fighting the virus.

“We were notified by the health department that our plasma could be beneficial to other people that are struggling with it,” Roach says. “I had never donated blood before and I thought this was a good opportunity to give back, so we worked with the health department and through Spectrum Lakeland over in St. Joseph county and they got us set up to give the plasma.”

Jacobs and Roach will be donating plasma again this week and they plan to continue doing so as long as they can.