‘I got a second chance’: Restaurant owner Nick Barakos reflects on near-death experience from COVID-19 – LNP | LancasterOnline

Just over three years after he recovered from a case of COVID-19 that left him hooked to a breathing machine for more than a month, Nick Barakos says hell never be the same.

While he has regained the 60 pounds he lost while sick and there isnt any lingering damage to his lungs, kidneys or liver, the 59-year-old restaurant owner has noticed some changes of heart. After years of deferring what had been a long-held aspiration, he finally built a home in his native Greece. And in his day-to-day life, Barakos says hes become soft-hearted.

Recalling the kindness of nurses and doctors or the family and friends who supported him through his ordeal leaves Barakos fighting back tears. During a recent hourlong interview with LNP | LancasterOnline, he choked up four times.

Thats one thing COVID has left me. Im a lot more emotional now, said Barakos, who owns Kyma Seafood and Johnnys Bar & Steakhouse in East Cocalico Township. Im very lucky and sometimes I just cry. Ill be driving down the road listening to an emotional song and I start crying.

Four years ago on April 10, the United States became the country with the most reported COVID-19 deaths as widespread mask mandates had been enacted. Just as vaccines to combat the disease were finally rolling out nearly a year later, Barakos came excruciatingly close to becoming another of the nearly 2,200 Lancaster County residents that died from the disease. At one point he was given only a 30% chance of survival.

During parts of February and March of 2021, Barakos spent 36 days on a ventilator at Wellspan Ephrata Community Hospital, a record that still stands for any patient at the hospital.

Nick Barakos, owner of Kyma Seafood Grill and Johnnys Bar and Steakhouse, in Stevens, speaks about his near-death experience with Covid-19 in 2021, and what he went through on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Nick was on a ventilator for 36 days and lost 60 pounds. It took him close to one year to regain the weight and strength he lost prior to being sick. Learning to walk again was one of the difficulties he had to conquer.

Patients on a ventilator can develop such complications as muscle weakness, recurring infections, pressure ulcers, hyperactive delirium and post-traumatic stress syndrome, among others. An August 2022 study published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society found that 61% of a group of 1,966 COVID-19 patents had died 28 days after being intubated.

The longer you go on a vent, even without COVID, you run into long-term problems, Dr. John Jack Joseph, a WellSpan pulmonologist and one of the doctors on the team that treated Barakos, told LNP | LancasterOnline in March 2022. Hes an outlier, theres no question about it.

While being grateful to have beaten the odds, Barakos said he sometimes feels guilty that he made it when so many others didnt

Most people dont survive near death experiences, he said. Why did I survive and all these others are people dying. Why me?

READ:Restaurateur survives COVID-19 after 5 weeks on ventilator

When Barakos left the hospital he was unrecognizable to his family. Rail thin and weak, he couldnt even raise a fork to eat.

Returning home, he slowly resumed his lifelong weightlifting at a home gym. Although at first he needed to use a walker and barely could lift any weights, he persevered through a recovery that is as remarkable as his initial survival.

Im a stubborn old Greek. Now Im old I used to be young. But Im stubborn, he said.

His recovery has become an inspiration to the hospital staff who saw him at his lowest points.

Nick Barakos is seen at WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital in this undated photo. He was admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 on Feb. 21, 2021, and spent more than a month there. He spent 36 days on a ventilator.

Some days seemed so bleak, but I cant stress how wonderful it felt as a nurse to see my patients improve and get out of the hospital, said Gerri Harris, a nurse in the hospitals intensive care unit. Nick will always be remembered on our unit as, The One That Made it!

About six months after coming home, Barakos returned to work at Kyma Seafood and Johnnys Bar & Steakhouse. Remarkably, he said some of his own employees werent taking the disease seriously, even after what had happened to him.

Some of these young kids, you know, they think theyre invincible, he said.

Barakos said he didnt lecture employees or customers about the disease and the governments response to it since it became a divisive issue. He would, however, occasionally share his own experience, including a photo his brother-in-law took of him on his 30th day in ICU when he was attached to a large breath tube, unconscious.

A lot of people got the vaccine the ones were on the fence - after they heard about me being so sick. So that was a good thing, he said.

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Barakos was born in Greece but his parents emigrated to the United States when he was a child. He grew up in York County and helped his parents in the restaurants they owned.

In 1994, Barakos and his brother George took over what was then the Silk City Diner along Route 272, just east of the Reading/Lancaster exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. They operated Johnnys Bar & Steakhouse as a separate restaurant on the buildings lower level.

Nick Barakos, owner of Kyma Seafood Grill and Johnnys Bar and Steakhouse, in Stevens, speaks about his near-death experience with Covid-19 in 2021, and what he went through on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Nick was on a ventilator for 36 days and lost 60 pounds. It took him close to one year to regain the weight and strength he lost prior to being sick. Learning to walk again was one of the difficulties he had to conquer.

In 2009 the brothers overhauled the upstairs restaurant, changing it from a diner into Kyma Seafood Grill. Barakos said the shift from an all-day diner to a dinner spot proved successful while also improving his own work schedule.

Barakos eventually bought out his brother and has operated the restaurants on his own for the last 10 years. Barakos owns the property and described a conservative approach to the business that allowed him to save money for the unexpected.

When restrictions meant to slow the spread of COVID-19 forced restaurants to close in March 2020, Barakos said some of his reserves - along with government assistance programs designed for restaurants helped the business survive.

We just took things in stride, he said. We just had to deal with things that were thrown at us. We had no option, no choice. We had to listen to the government, you know, for those safety rules. We closed down when they told us to and we tried to follow the safety measures as much as possible.

While the business was weathering the pandemic as well as could be expected, a year after the first restaurant closures, Barakos found himself fighting for his own survival.

Around Valentines Day in 2021, Barakos and several employees got sick with COVID-19, forcing the restaurant to close for a week. The other employees recovered, but Barakos took a turn for the worse and then much worse as he needed to be put on a breathing machine.

We got a call in the middle of the night one night that they intubated him. And from then on it was just some of the worst weeks of our lives, said Nicks sister, Vickie Saltos Barakos. He was basically in a state. He didnt know anything. We were the ones who were aware every second what was going on.

At one point Nick was given only a 30% chance of survival. Barred from visiting him because of worries about spreading the virus, the family stayed in touch through frequent calls to the hospital. Saltos Barakos said she also made the nearly hourlong trip from their home near York just to sit in the hospital parking lot, just to be closer to him.

Wed drive all the way up and sit outside and just cry, Saltos Barakos said. We were desperate to be near him.

In addition to doing their best to look after Nick, Saltos Barakos and her husband, Chris, also helped look after his restaurant since they also have experience in the industry.

Barakos said he doesnt remember much about his time in the hospital, although he does recall many strange and vivid dreams. It was only after he got out that the full impact of his experience became apparent to him.

Barakos, who never married, recalls thinking that he was glad that it was him and not someone with a wife and children who got the disease, and might not have survived.

Im thinking, whos going to remember me if I die, he said. But I had a rude awakening. So many people contacted me friends, family and customers. I got over 250 cards from customers and friends saying, you know, we would have missed you and this and that.

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A changed man

While Barakos said he still occasionally gets recognized from some of the initial news stories about his recovery, the attention has died down along with the focus on COVID-19, which continues to circulate, but with much less impact.

Even Barakos own second bout with COVID-19 in January proved little more than a bad cold that didnt really worry him.

I was confident, he said. I had all the vaccines, you know, I had all of them.

And while he wore a mask for a couple weeks after that, he most often goes without one.

But for Barakos, the impact of COVID-19 continues to be life-changing. A dual citizen of Greece and the United States, Barakos would regularly visit Greece and the home his parents have in Nafpaktos, a coastal town about two hours east of Athens.

Barakos has long dreamed of building a home of his own in Greece, saying for the last 10 years that next year would be when he would finally do it.

After this experience, I said. Theres no next year. I did it. I built my house last summer, he said.

For now, the house is just a vacation home, but Barakos said that when he eventually retires from the restaurant business, he plans to move to Greece full time. Yet he doesnt imagine just taking it easy he wants to continue to find ways to help others once he doesnt have the daily pressures of running a restaurant.

I got a second chance and Im not going to let it go, he said. I mean, very few people get second chances in life. Very few. And if you dont take advantage of that, then that doesnt change you. Then you have no heart.

Nicks sister has noticed the ways her brothers experience with COVID-19 changed him.

Hes a lot more sensitive, emotional, Saltos-Barakos said. Very emotional. We are an emotional family, we show our feelings, but he has become even more emotional.

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'I got a second chance': Restaurant owner Nick Barakos reflects on near-death experience from COVID-19 - LNP | LancasterOnline