James and Darlene Johnson are grateful to be home together, both recovering from coronavirus.
The Highland Park couple has been married for 48 years and believe they got COVID-19 after attending a memorial service and funeral in March.
They went to Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital Warren Campus together. Darlene was not as sick and sent home to self-quarantine, but James was admitted to the hospital. He would spend 28 days on a ventilator.
“They instantly took him back. And then an hour or so later, they called me and told me they were putting him on a ventilator,” Darlene Johnson said. “It scared the living crap out of me.”
James remembers very little from his time in the hospital. He said when he came out of his coma he couldn’t walk or talk. His voice is still recovering.
“COVID-19 is severely affecting his whole body system, so all of his organs and his whole body was fighting this off,” said Dr. Dan Ryan, the Chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Ascension Macomb-Oakland. “When you’re on ventilatory support you really are pretty still you’re not doing much movement at all except for when the therapist or nurse or somebody else is moving your limbs and rolling you or doing what have you to have some movement. So from that you’re pretty weak and get debilitated from that standpoint.”
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Source: Metro Detroit couple reunited after 50 days apart due to COVID-19
