Coronavirus Almost Took The Life Of The Healthiest Man In Lone Tree – Colorado Public Radio

For days, there were no major signs of progress. Doctors wanted to try several experimental treatments. First, they suggested a drug called tocilizumab, which depresses the immune system, putting Jason at risk for a secondary infection but also potentially quieting the immune storm inside his body. They also suggested convalescent blood plasma, where blood from people who recovered from COVID-19 is pumped into the patient, to help provide antibodies that might fight the infection.

Each time, Michelle had to decide "yes" or "no," with Jasons life hanging in the balance.

On the day before Easter, a week and a half after Jason entered the emergency room, she broke down.

I felt like I had to give everything to God because I had so much anxiety, she says. I just had to ask him to help me and guide me on this path and to make any available treatments that Jason needed available to me.

The next day, Easter Sunday, the doctors called and said he was approved for the trial study to do the convalescent plasma.

At The Medical Center of Aurora, doctors and nurses were seeing a lot of really sick patients, and they were seeing a lot of patients die, a heavy mental weight to carry around. Melton, one of Jasons registered nurses, estimated a COVID-19 patient like Jason could have more than a hundred people contributing to his care: nurses, doctors, physical and occupational speech therapists, dieticians, housekeeping.

It takes an actual village and I was just privileged to be a part of that, she says.

For Hanna, Jasons illness came at a critical moment in her own life. She was just returning from maternity leave and Jason was her very first patient.

Her son Brooks was about 8 weeks old and she says she worried about bringing the virus home. As soon as shed walk in the door, shed want to hug her child. But the first thing shed do is disinfect everything, take off her scrubs and take a shower.

So it's kind of an interesting time to actually be away from home, she says.

There is no comprehensive accounting of the healthcare workers whove died of COVID, but an investigation from Kaiser Health News and the Guardian found more than 600 frontline providers likely died from the disease, many of them people of color. A doctor in New York died by suicide after treating COVID-19 patients; a Colorado paramedic who answered the call to help in New York in midst of an outbreak there died from the disease.

On top of that, Jason shared so much in common with Hanna's husband: Theyre the same age, both really fit, with young children.

It was really scary. I actually kind of held a lot of that back from discussing with my husband, she says.

Amy Cooper, one of the nurses who treated Jason, has worked in intensive care units for ten years but even so, managing patients who are fighting to survive COVID-19 has been tough.

Several die, several don't make progress, but very few have been success stories, Cooper says. It sort of boggles my mind how this virus picks and chooses people, and who gets really sick and who is barely ill from it.

By Easter, Jason had been under sedation and on a ventilator for nine days, and on ECMO for nearly that long. That weekend doctors decided to try the convalescent plasma, as well as the experimental drug theyd considered earlier.

While Michelle worried, doctors began to see signs of hope he might survive. Then, the day after Easter, his condition suddenly began to improve. His chest x-ray and his lab results got better every day.

He just rocketed forwards, she says. A few days later, providers were able to turn off the ECMO, and then the next day the ventilator.

Little by little, Jason started to wake up. He had no idea how he got there, drifting in and out of awareness. A collage of family pictures, put together by a friend, hung from the wall of his hospital room. It said You Are Loved.

Sometime during my recovery phase in the ICU, I must've seen this collage. So in my dreams, I went through multiple different scenarios of me on my deathbed, Jason says. It was very much just time to reflect on what's special in life.

He remembers the moment when he started to realize what hed been through. He didnt recognize the person at his bedside, a doctor hed never met before at least when he was awake.

Jason says it was a confusing celebration.

It was basically high fives, like, Oh my gosh, you made it. It's so great to see you. Fantastic. You beat this thing, he said.

That doctor at his bedside was Joe Forrester, a pulmonologist. He says its common for patients whove been under so long and had their sleep cycle disrupted to be disoriented when they wake up. Jason had been unconscious for nearly two weeks, with no understanding of what hed been through.

Jason remembers telling Forrester Oh, okay, yeah, I'll get through this. This is a journey. We'll power through it. He says Forrester said something like, No, no, you don't understand. You made it through the tough part. You made it. It's so great to see you.

Forrester says he told Jason hed already done all the hard work and he will make it home. And I think before that he really didn't see an end in sight.

Man, I was, I was more on that side than this side. I beat the odds, Jason said. I was completely overwhelmed.

Jason had lost between 25 and 30 pounds in two and a half weeks. He couldnt unlock his smartphone at first because the facial recognition software didnt recognize him.

Back when Jason got sick, Michelle had circled one key date: her birthday on April 18. Shed prayed Jason would be awake by then and told friends the only thing she wanted was for him to be healthy enough to celebrate the day.

It started getting closer and closer and I was like, Oh my goodness. You know, I honestly didn't feel like we would be reaching this point, she said.

On April 18th, two days after he woke up, Jason wished her happy birthday over Facetime. It was the best thing I have ever heard, Michelle said.

Their daughter Kestin says everyone, including family, friends and neighbors, pitched in to help the family while her dad was sick.

It's amazing. There were so many people supporting him, she said. That gave me a lot of confidence that he was gonna make it.

The ECMO certainly kept him alive and he was part of an FDA clinical trial using convalescent plasma. In Colorado, nearly 1,000 people have been treated with that therapy. No publication time frame for the drug trial results has yet been announced.

Researchers are also studying tocilizumab, which Jason received, though not as part of an FDA clinical trial. The drug has been used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, and is among a number of other treatments to deal with the cytokine storm Jason experienced.

Still, none of his doctors are sure of what saved him.

I don't think any of us know, or we'd be treating all COVID patients with a certain therapy regimen, Hanna says.

But it seems likely his fitness was a decisive factor. Forrester says that didnt stop Jason from catching COVID-19, but it helped him muster the strength to fight it off. He had to overcome the stress of being on a mechanical ventilator, ECMO, and lying in bed for weeks, which can lead to muscle atrophy.

Having someone who's fit that makes a tremendous difference as to whether they'll survive that kind of insult, Forrester says.

Needless to say, I did not think this (COVID-19) would impact me, if at all, minimally, Jason says.

Cooper believes the fact that he was hospitalized and then on ECMO relatively early in his illness probably had the most impact, a testament to Michelles early push to get Jason to the hospital.

Forrester said Jason recovered so thoroughly he didnt have any visible residual lung disease and wasnt on oxygen anymore a rarity for COVID-19 patients.

It's just a matter of rehabilitating his arms and legs and he should be back to normal as if in a year this never happened, he said. He showed a remarkable ability to heal and to reverse such extensive lung injury to the point where it's almost negligible.

Many COVID-19 patients who get released from the hospital will face ongoing health problems. Those lucky enough to survive may suffer permanent disability, including things like kidney failure, neurologic damage and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Coronavirus Almost Took The Life Of The Healthiest Man In Lone Tree - Colorado Public Radio