This was the first time I had spoken with someone who had COVID-19 and also survived a lengthy hospital stay. I was astonished by the strength and resiliency of Glen Reed and his family. After being on a ventilator for two weeks, his doctors didn’t know if Glen would ever wake up. But luckily, he came out on the other side.
— Jasmine Demers
“Don’t lose your faith,” says Glen Reed, looking out from his home after spending nearly a month in the hospital for treatment of COVID-19, including two weeks on a ventilator.
Glen Reed was admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 on March 11. When his doctors told him he would have to be intubated, he and his family didn’t know if he would ever wake up.
“At that point, I thought there’s so much I didn’t do,” he said. “I have a grandson who’s just turning 6 and I’m thinking ‘God, what’s happening here?’ I’m not done yet. I’m not ready.”
After three weeks in intensive care and over two weeks on a ventilator, the 57-year-old was discharged from Northwest Medical Center on April 7. He is now negative for COVID-19.
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Reed described the last month as the most difficult experience of his life. After developing shortness of breath and a fever around March 6, Reed’s wife finally persuaded him to go to the emergency room.
Because of testing constraints at that time, the hospital didn’t get his positive test result until March 15. Reed’s doctors knew he was at a higher risk for developing more severe symptoms because of his previously diagnosed hypertension.
“We were treating him with the assumption of this disease and not necessarily knowing that he had it,” said Dr. Ryan Matika, the hospital’s director of critical care and the physician in charge of Reed’s case. “When I reviewed his X-rays and CT scans and labs, it looked like it, it smelled like and it felt like it, so we just pulled the trigger and said this is what it is, and we’re going to go all in.”
Dr. Ryan Matika, medical director of critical care at Northwest Medical Center.
Contact reporter Jasmine Demers at jdemers@tucson.com
On Twitter: @JasmineADemers
Jasmine Demers
Reporter
