These Coloradans survived coronavirus during the first wave. Here’s what they want you to know now. – The Colorado Sun

With the coronavirus crisis worsening by the day, The Colorado Sun reached out to three people who survived the disease in the spring to hear how their recovery is going and see what advice they have for their fellow Coloradans as the state weathers this latest surge.

Doug Summerfield, a 75-year-old Arvada man who spent a month on a ventilator, said he gets that people may be tired of coronavirus restrictions. But he said they are nothing compared to the effects of COVID-19.

Believe me, they are not inconveniences compared to trying to recover from this, compared to trying to deal with the financial expense that hits you, he said. You dont want to get it.

Click the audio files below to hear from the survivors.

About five months after being released from a rehab center, Doug Summerfield remains pretty weak. His wrist is still in excruciating pain from nerve damage and has required surgery. He sometimes struggles to breathe.

Not real great, is how he said he feels. I had hopes when I got out of rehab that in a couple months Id be back to normal. Everybody is telling me its going to take a year. Im afraid theyre right.

Summerfield fell ill with COVID-19 in late March and spent about a month on a ventilator. Doctors thought he wouldnt live, especially given his battles with asthma. But in May, he awoke he calls it a miracle and began what has turned into a long recovery.

Emotionally, Summerfield says he is doing OK, but he gets choked up when discussing the anxiety his friends and family contended with as he lay in a hospital bed on the edge of death.

MORE: 75-year-old Arvada man who spent a month on ventilator after coronavirus infection returns home from hospital

I didnt go through a month sitting on the couch like my wife did counting the seconds in the night, he said. My wife, my children, my friends all of those people went through a horrible time. Some of them cant even talk about it. That tears me up.

He thinks people who refuse to follow social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines even now are not being very intelligent.

Just the first week in the hospital was astronomically expensive, he said. Thank God I had decent insurance. For people who dont have insurance good insurance for Gods sake you dont want to catch this if for no other reason (than) it will financially ruin you. It will kill you.

Lisa Merck, a 51-year-old nurse practitioner in Crested Butte, was one of the first people in Colorado known to catch the coronavirus, but she still hasnt totally shaken the effects of the disease.

She estimates she is about 95% of her normal self. In the months following her infection, she dealt with sore throats, headaches and hair loss. In August, she felt like she had a mini relapse of COVID shortness of breath, a racing heart and chest pain.

My sense of smell hasnt totally come back yet, she said.

Merck started feeling ill on Feb. 18 Colorados first confirmed case wasnt until March 5 as she and her husband were returning from a medical conference in Hawaii. Her symptoms worsened to the point that she went to the hospital on March 8 and received a pneumonia diagnosis. She was tested for COVID-19, and the results came back positive.

Since Merck is a nurse with her own clinic, she wanted to receive two negative COVID-19 test results before returning to work. That took a difficult two months as she kept getting conflicting readouts.

MORE: A Crested Butte woman came home from Hawaii with sniffles. Then she found out it was coronavirus.

Im frustrated with the whole way the entire way that the coronavirus has been handled, honestly, she said.

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If all Americans would just wear masks, she thinks businesses could stay open and infection rates would drop. She understands how hard it is for people to stay apart from each other, but its crucial that they be careful.

Even though you think youre healthy, and youre immune to it, youre not immune to it, she said. We dont know how its going to affect each person. Everybody is different. Merck pointed to the fact that her husband also caught coronavirus, but his infection was mild and only lasted a few days compared to her months-long ordeal.

Merck still hasnt resumed seeing patients in person at her clinic in Crested Butte for fear of catching the virus again.

Honestly, I am afraid of getting reinfected, she said. Im not opening my clinic doors until we see corona go down.

Dan Michaelec believes he caught COVID-19 at the end of February during a Vail ski trip. Just over a week later, the 55-year-old Parker man checked into a hospital.

He doesnt remember the three and a half weeks that followed. His condition had deteriorated enough that doctors put him into a medically induced coma and on a ventilator.

Michaelec stayed in five different hospitals and rehab centers as his health improved, worsened and improved again. After nine weeks of treatment he was finally well enough to return home and see his wife and kids in person.

But Michaelecs path to recovery has not been linear. While hes hesitant to call himself a long-hauler as other coronavirus survivors with lasting symptoms are known, some of the effects of the virus remain to this day, including lung scarring, high blood pressure, kidney dysfunction, spotty memory, motor and balance issues, and fatigue.

Despite setbacks, Michaelec is focused on finding markers of success: his first breath sans ventilator, his first bite of real food in weeks a giant sub sandwich and pushing himself to regain his strength through physical therapy sessions.

Im very blessed and very proud of where Im at, Michaelec said. My goal is to be that if you ever saw me on the street, you would never know what I went through.

Michaelec doesnt want to preach, but he does want people to feel a sense of social responsibility when it comes to living in a pandemic.

Educate yourself and make the best decisions for you, while you still continue to enjoy this beautiful thing we have called life, he said. But also remember that your decisions can impact others as well.

If anything, Michaelec says, his wife is more intent on fighting the pandemic than he is; after all, she experienced the moment-to-moment stress and trauma of his hospital stay.

What she had to go through, and what my daughters had to go through, its very sad, and I dont wish that upon anybody ever, Michaelec said. Ever.

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These Coloradans survived coronavirus during the first wave. Here's what they want you to know now. - The Colorado Sun