Coronavirus Survivor: 130 Days Hospitalized And Often Near Death

EAST HAVEN, CT — “Just let me go,” John Ormond told his daughter on the phone.

"When he said, ‘Just let me go,' I knew it was out of desperation," said Savonna Ormond, the assistant director of nursing for Whispering Pines Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. "I knew it was him suffering at the moment. I knew it wasn't about anything else. You know when you're in those situations, it's easy to give up. But I wasn't giving up on him.”

And, it turns out, he was not ready to either. He had a lot to live for. And so, for more than four months, he fought to stay alive, with help from doctors and nurses at Yale New Haven Hospital's St. Raphael campus.

And when Ormond finally awakened fully, he didn't know what had happened. He told Patch he has virtually no memory of those many months on a ventilator. If he knew he was close to death, he has no memory of that. In fact, he said, “When I came out of it, I didn't know where I was. I asked what happened. What day it was. It was August. All I knew I went in into the hospital in April.”

But one thing he does remember vividly is seeing a quote from the Bible on a wall. Whether it was there or not, he doesn't know, but it was John, 3:16, he said: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

So he prayed. And he survived COVID-19 after being in the hospital for 132 days.

On April 6, it was confirmed that six people had died at Whispering Pines. East Haven's mayor said at the time there were a number of positive cases, including staff members. By late May into early June, Whispering Pines had fought its way back from the early days of the pandemic.

But one of those nursing home workers was then-66-year-old John Ormond. Working at the nursing home part time after retiring from a long career as a master machinist by trade, Ormond, father of five and grandfather of seven, contracted the virus that causes COVID-19.

When Ormond arrived at St. Raphael’s on April 4 with a fever, stomach pain, body aches and hypoxia — a condition that happens when your body doesn't get enough oxygen — he’d already had the COVID-19 test, but it wasn’t until he went to the emergency room that he found out his test was positive. Within hours, he was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Ormond would remain hospitalized — almost continuously on a ventilator, and then, in an induced coma — for many months.

His daughter the nurse said, “I knew that if he got this sickness — you know we saw on the news all the time — but I knew that if he got this, it would be a long road. I never thought I would lose him, but I knew it would be a long road.”

On April 9, he was intubated and placed on a ventilator. Over the next several days, he underwent a series of intubations and extubations but was subsequently intubated a final time while experiencing spiking temperatures and very low blood pressure. He was on a ventilator all through April and into May when his family was told he’d be moved to an advanced surgery center at the hospital, where he’d undergo a tracheostomy and a peg tube. His family was told that he may have become septic and was spiking high temperatures.

“They called us to come into the hospital,” Savonna said, “because it didn't look good. They were preparing us for the worst. He was septic, his temperature was high. We went to see him. I was crying and my sister was crying, and I got close enough to him where my face shield touched him and he responded! I told the doctor, ‘With all due respect, I know this is your profession ...but my father's there. Please do everything you can do for him.’”

She brought a poster filled with images of her previously healthy and vital dad.

Soon, he was put in a medically induced coma and was ventilated through his tracheostomy. He underwent myriad tests and procedures. He’d remain in a medically induced coma until being moved back to the ICU on June 15, when his 67th birthday was celebrated by his family and nursing staff.

Then, in July, Ormond suffered a collapsed lung, and a chest tube was put in. But through what’s been described as a “miracle,” three days later, Ormond was “taken off the ventilator, and he never needed it again.”

Power of prayer

“It was a miracle. I believe in miracles,” Ormond told Patch via FaceTime from his room at Whispering Pines. And he said, it was in the power of prayer, as family and friends from Connecticut to North Carolina prayed.

By mid-July, he was transferred to Gaylord Hospital for intensive pulmonary rehabilitation and speech therapy — a particularly important therapy because he’d had multiple intubations, a tracheostomy and a peg tube — so he could regain strength and the ability to take food by mouth. While nearing the end of his stay at Gaylord Hospital, his tracheostomy tube was removed, and a few days later he was transferred to short-term rehabilitation. He remained at Gaylord for nearly a month.

Then he returned to Whispering Pines — this time, as a patient and not a worker — to continue therapy and healing.

He needed the assistance of a mechanical lift to be moved from his bed because he was unable to stand. But through “skilled intervention sessions, he was educated and trained on techniques to safely participate in and complete all daily functional tasks.”

Now, he can stand with little to no assistance and works hard to regain the strength he’s lost.

“Mr. Ormond works extremely hard during interventions, and with his positive attitude and determination, we believe he will continue to make great progress,” said Cathy Wysokowski, Whispering Pines' admissions director.

Soon, he’ll move to one of the facility’s senior living homes as part of his “continuum of care."

“Whispering Pines is home for my dad,” Savonna said. “The staff here is outstanding. The therapist here has done amazing work. Each week, he's doing different things and reaching milestones. He was already like a celebrity here. He has a nickname, 'P-Diddy.' That's what we all call him. It's hard not to love him.”

A long road ahead

When Ormond was moved into a rehabilitation hospital, he was unable to walk, could not eat on his own, and had limited use of his hands. He said he felt like “a newborn baby” — vulnerable and unable to do anything for himself.

But he’s been working hard, every day. He can now walk using a walker. And he said being surrounded by the staff at Whispering Pines — including not just daughter Savonna but also daughter Ashanti Ormond, a nursing scheduler — he feels, “like I’m home.”

“I feel love here,” he said. “Here, I feel like I’m home." And he says, he's been getting "VIP treatment.”

Ormond said that he feels as if he has a “second chance” at life.

“I'm very grateful to be alive,” he said. "This is my second chance."

And since his daughter says he can really throw down in the kitchen, he looks forward to making his famous fried chicken and pulled pork one day soon.

“I prayed and prayed,” he said. “And here I am.”

And, after surviving the impossible, Ormond voted.