7/6/2023 0 Comments Unherd zero covid“I have given advice to over 20 critical COVID patients who have passed away and it reminded me even more how lucky I am to be alive.Instead, Smith spent the next two days on the phone, speaking to several doctors and CVS pharmacists before tracking down the Pfizer drug at a pharmacy in Oakland. Every day waking up is a gift, so I don’t take it for granted,” he said. “It’s all about understanding how precious life is. What he does have is a new outlook on life. Save the partial loss of fingers and toes, he has no lingering health effects from his battle with COVID-19. Today, Garfield can do 95% of everything he used to do, which means lots of skiing, hiking, and mountain biking. “I had a commitment to myself to not be wheeled out of that hospital.” “It was probably one of the most empowering things in my life,” he said. But the pure adrenaline of about 200 hospital workers gathering to cheer him on, and the joy of being reunited with his sister Stephanie Garfield Bruno and his partner A.J. At the time, Garfield was being transported in a wheelchair as his nerves were recovering from his 31 days in a coma. The day Garfield left the hospital his physical therapist did not think an exit on foot was possible. “At 54 years old it’s a very humbling experience to learn to do everything again.” “I had to learn how to chew and swallow and walk again,” said Garfield. His recovery was a hard journey, but something he got through with great tenacity and persistence. Garfield has also become a motivational speaker and seeks to inspire others with his story. How the American Dream convinces people loneliness is normal There’s not even a question there for me.” They deserve a lot of credit that they don’t get,” said Garfield. “This (healthcare) is a profession that is so under-appreciated both financially and emotionally. The heroism of hospital staff was not lost on Garfield, who has dedicated significant time to advocating for hospital workers since he was discharged, and helped raise money for a $78 million new emergency room at Providence in Burbank. “Everybody who was around him really was, at the time, concerned that they were going to contract this terrible illness and bring it home to their families.” Stephen Kishineff, who took care of Garfield in the emergency room. “There are a lot of people that risked their own health, especially in that time when there was a fear that this (COVID) was going to kill anybody that got in contact with him,” said Dr. At the time, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank was the only hospital in the region that would agree to accept a COVID patient, Garfield said. Garfield was one of the first COVID patients in America and the very first in L.A. Those very early days of the pandemic were a terrifying time for hospital workers, as very little was known about the disease and how it spread. “It was also such a satisfying way to celebrate National Nurses Week by walking and showing them what the fruits of their labor have produced.” “I got to go to every department in the hospital and see all of the people that made that heroic effort that allowed my survival to take place - from the ER staff, to the ICU doctors, to my my physical therapist - it was such an unbelievable day and moment,” he said on Monday. And now, three years to the date later, he had the privilege of reuniting with staff as a completely healthy man. He was in a medically induced coma for 31 days during which his heart flatlined on four separate occasions.īut on May 8, 2020, after 64 days in the hospital, Garfield did what doctors had thought impossible: he walked out of the front door. He suffered from collapsed lungs, sepsis, failed kidneys, low blood pressure, acute respiratory syndrome, pulmonary embolism and the loss of several fingers and toes. Garfield was given a 1% chance of survival when he was admitted to the ICU after contracting COVID-19 during a ski trip to the Italian Dolomites in February of 2020. Three years since his miraculous death-defying recovery Gregg Garfield, aka COVID Patient Zero, returned to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank on Monday, May 8, to thank the staff who nursed him back to life.
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