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Armenian Man Dies from Coronavirus After Visiting Disney World Orlando

Jeff Ghazarian (Facebook Photo)
A 34-year-old Armenian man from Glendora, California died after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. Jeffrey Ghazarian died on Thursday, March 19 at a Pasadena hospital, where he was hooked up to a ventilator for five days, after being diagnosed with the coronavirus on March 13.
He had visited Disney World in Orlando, Florida before returning to Los Angeles. He became the second person in Los Angeles County to succumb to the coronavirus.
“He suffered a lot and put up a good fight. We will miss our Jeff everyday but we are thankful for all the fun happy memories of the times we had together,” his sister wrote on his Facebook page, according to TMZ.
Ghazarian’s family told TMZ that he flew from Los Angeles to Orlando on March 2 for a work conference, but stayed a few extra days to visit Disney World and Universal theme parks with friends.
According to his family, on March 7 Ghazarian developed a cough, and the next day he coughed up blood. He flew back to LAX on March 9 and immediately went to the emergency, where he also had a high fever. The Ghazarian family told TMZ that a chest x-ray confirmed he had pneumonia. He was tested for COVID-19 and sent home with fluids and antibiotics and instructed to self-quarantine until he got the results.
On March 13, the results of his test came back positive for the coronavirus. According to TMZ, Ghazarian was given a portable oxygen meter to keep an eye on his. On March 14 he was taken by ambulance to the hospital and quickly transferred to the ICU when it was discovered his lungs were 60 to 70 percent blocked with pneumonia. Doctors decided the best path forward was to sedate and intubate, hoping a ventilator would help his lungs heal, according to family accounts provided to TMZ.
Ghazarian passed away Thursday morning. His family said he was he had a history of asthma and frequent bronchitis as a child, though he outgrew that. He also had undergone surgery for testicular cancer back in 2016.
Dr. Richard Hovannisian to Present ‘The Smyrna Catastrophe, 1922-2013’ at Boca Raton’s St. David Armenian Church
The Smyrna Catastrophe, 1922-2013
An Illustrated Lecture by
Dr. Richard Hovannisian
Co-sponsorsed by St. David Armenian Church
&
The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
September, 2012 marked the 90th anniversary of the Smyrna catastrophe when much of the city, the second largest in the Ottoman Empire, was destroyed by fire four days after the Turkish army had occupied the city. The calamity, a part of the final phase of the Armenian Genocide, marked the end of a strong Christian presence in the historic Aegean coastal regions and turned hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Armenians into refugees.
In this illustrated lecture, Prof. Richard Hovannisian will discuss the important role of Smyrna (Izmir) in modern Armenian history and the inferno that engulfed the city in September, 1922. Hovannisian is the editor of the recently published Armenian Smyrna/Izmir, the eleventh volume of proceedings from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) conference series “Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces.” He also traveled to Izmir and environs in June, 2012 as the historian-guide for a NAASR Armenian Heritage Tour led by Armen Aroyan.
Professor Hovannisian was the first holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA. He currently serves as Distinguished Chancellor’s Fellow at Chapman University in Orange County, CA and Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Armenia on the Road to Independence, the four-volume history The Republic of Armenia, and has edited and contributed to more than twenty-five books including The Armenian Genocide in Perspective; The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times; Remembrance and Denial; Looking Backward, Moving Forward; and The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies.
TIME & LOCATION
WHEN: Sunday, March 3, 2013 at 1:00 PM
WHERE: St. David Armenian Church, 2300 Yamato Rd., Boca Raton, FL 33431
The event is free and open to the public. A book signing of Armenian Smyrna/Izmir will immediately follow the lecture. For more information please contact St. David Armenian Church at (561) 994-2335 or stdavidarmchurch@bellsouth.net, or NAASR at 617-489-1610 or hq@naasr.org.