Critical COVID Survivor Jerry Greenwood Is Still ‘Fighting Every Day’ – WCCO

MORA, Minn. (WCCO) — He went from one of the Twin Cities’ most critical COVID patients to survive to a 54-year-old Mora man nonetheless struggling to breathe.

Jerry Greenwood appeared again on his greater than 100 days within the hospital and his unsure future.

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“They arrive in together with your file they usually simply shake their head. They will’t imagine you’re right here,” Greenwood mentioned of his medical doctors who see him now.

Having a dialog sitting on his lounge sofa in Mora appeared far off a couple of months in the past.

“Yeah his file is fairly massive. Everybody desires to take heed to his lungs,” his spouse Lila Greenwood joked.

Jerry Greenwood’s battle with COVID-19 was documented by means of photos that captured the merciless actuality of a pandemic that, for months, they’d labored to keep away from.

“Hand sanitizer. Going out little or no, simply to buy and are available again,” Lila Greenwood mentioned.

A longtime service supervisor at a neighborhood automobile dealership and a diabetic, Jerry’s complete household turned contaminated final November. All of them obtained by with delicate signs.

“So, I believed effectively, that’s what I’m going to undergo. However, it hit me in a complete completely different method,” Jerry Greenwood mentioned.

His spouse, Lila, instructed us in March this previous yr over zoom of her husband’s will to stay. From a ventilator to an ECMO machine at Abbott, months of setbacks.

It’s time that Jerry doesn’t keep in mind. Studying to stroll and to speak once more.

In all, 114 days handed till he went residence in April.

“Lots of people assume, ‘Oh, you’re out of the hospital. You’ve made it, you’re executed.’ That was not even half the battle,” Jerry Greenwood mentioned.

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“I by no means took something. Not even a vitamin,” Jerry mentioned of his life earlier than.

(credit score: CBS)

Now, coronary heart remedy, blood thinners and drugs for PTSD from the time he spent in a coma. In all, he takes 20 a day.

“I can’t elevate far more than … level-wise,” he mentioned as he tried to lift his arms and couldn’t.

His physique may additionally take as much as a yr to get again to a standard vary of movement.

However, it’s maybe Jerry’s respiration that’s most jarring.

“You stroll to the following room and also you’re combating for a breath, considering, am I going to recover from this one?” he mentioned of the ideas that undergo his thoughts.

Describing it as a constant feeling of drowning that has once more despatched him to the hospital twice. Nonetheless, he’s centered on getting higher for his household.

“The one half that I haven’t been capable of do, I haven’t been capable of get on the ground with my granddaughter. You realize, as a result of I’d by no means rise up,” he mentioned.

The small issues he as soon as took with no consideration and a reminder of the battle that for some COVID has left behind.

“The long-term battle is what I’m combating day by day,” Jerry Greenwood mentioned.

Docs inform Jerry his respiration must dramatically enhance earlier than they’re comfy working on his shoulders to get again to a full vary of movement.

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His medical payments have topped greater than $1 million and it’s unknown when or if he’ll have the ability to work once more. There is a fund set up to help.