Blind triplets who became Eagle Scouts battling COVID-19
One of three triplets diagnosed with COVID-19 is back home as he continues to recover while rooting for the health and recovery of his two brothers, one of whom remains hospitalized.
Leo Cantos and his siblings, Nick and Steven Cantos — all of whom have been blind since birth — became well-known in 2017 when they each earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts, in Arlington, Virginia. Last week, they each learned that they had the coronavirus, COVID-19.
Leo Cantos, who spent a week in the hospital before his release on Monday, said he'd turned to his Scout training to fight the virus.
"One of the things that we learned during Scouts — and becoming an Eagle Scout — is not to give up, even though sometimes things aren't easy to fight," Leo Cantos told ABC News. "And so, when I got the virus, that's what I thought I should do. I should fight through it and so I have and I'm continuing to fight through it."
Leo Cantos said that his brothers are still fighting the virus and that Nick Cantos is still in the hospital.
Their father, Ollie Cantos, who was also born blind and who adopted the trio in 2010 when they were 11 years old, told ABC affiliate WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., during a previous interview that before they got sick, the college students had returned home because their university was closed due to the pandemic.
Ollie Cantos said that rather than going straight home, the trio had stayed at another house to avoid possibly getting his mother ill. Ollie Cantos said he believed his sons had contracted the coronavirus while staying at the other home.
By April 20, all three brothers were sick. They went to the hospital where they were all tested positive. Ollie Cantos said that Leo Cantos was hospitalized that day.
"It's really scary," Leo Cantos told WJLA-TV over the phone. "I've never been this sick before."
Three days later, Nick Cantos had to be hospitalized. Steven, whose symptoms were mild, isolated at home.
"It's a roller coaster," Ollie Cantos told WJLA-TV.
On Tuesday, Leo Cantos told ABC News that the brothers were hanging in there, thanks to the "awesomeness of being an Eagle Scout."
"We're getting through this," he said. "We're fighting it off."
