Coco Austin's father "can't even talk" after being stricken with coronavirus.
Coco Austin
The 'Ice and Coco' star's dad Steve - who has no underlying medical conditions - is currently in an intensive care facility at an Arizona hospital after contracting the illness, and the blonde beauty has been warned her father may have to go on a ventilator because he has pneumonia in both lungs.
And Coco has seen her dad decline in recent days, even though he's been given steroids to help him "feel good".
She said: "It's not looking good. I wish I had better results today...
"To know that the most healthy person in this family is about to go on a ventilator, they're talking about that, which is really hard because I'm pretty much the next of kin.
"I have a really big family and they put it in my hands to make these decisions, so it's been really hard to have to even talk about."
Steve's dad is now struggling to communicate with his daughter, in part because he is so "frustrated" by his condition.
She told the New York Post newspaper's Page Six column: "He's at the point where he can't even talk.
He can't even say a word. For him to say 'no' or 'yes' is so hard that I have to use texting now, and today he doesn't even want to text anymore. He's just getting so frustrated that he's in this position that he doesn't want to get on the phone."
The 41-year-old star last saw Steve on Father's Day (21.06.20) and thought his symptoms had already started then.
She said: "He was feeling lethargic. My dad is very much a chattybox. He's very much a conversationalist and he wasn't talking that day much, so there was something up that we knew."
However, though Steve's symptoms worsened and he suffered shortness of breath and felt like pins were "being stabbed throughout his body", he didn't seek medical attention for another nine days.
Coco said: "Knowing what he's gone through, he let this disease or virus sit in him for nine days before doing anything. That's basically what they say is too late."
Coco and her husband Ice-T - who have four-year-old daughter Chanel together - have been monitoring themselves for signs of the virus but so far, apart from her dad and two aunts, no other family members have shown symptoms.
She said: "It's hard to get a test out here when you don't have symptoms, but I do want to get an antibodies [test]. We've been talking about where to go to get that, but it's so hard."
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