Pastor Celebrates Easter With Family After Beating Coronavirus

AURORA, IL — An Aurora pastor who nearly died from coronavirus complications was able to spend Easter Sunday with his family after recovering from the disease, according to a report from Aurora Beacon-News. Andrew Coffield, a youth pastor at First Apostolic Church of Aurora since 2015, required a ventilator at times during his 13-day stay in a Michigan hospital, the report states.

Coffield and his family traveled to his hometown in Michigan after learning of Illinois’ shelter-in-place order, they told the Beacon-News.

On Facebook, Coffield said he called a hospital to be tested for coronavirus on March 28, to learn that he would have to wait until March 30.

"In hindsight had I waited that long to be tested or to receive treatment, there’s a good chance I would not be alive today," he wrote. "Later that evening I was driven to the ER by my wife and my mother. Initially I was denied testing until the nurse looked at my chest x-ray with shock. Saying it was the worst chest x-ray she had ever seen."

Coffield said his oxygen levels dropped dramatically, and he was put on a ventilator.

"For several days my health did not change," he wrote. "That was all until the day I almost died. Friday morning the medical team conducted a breathing test with me that went horribly wrong. It left my body in utter distress, my vitals had dropped, and my condition was downgraded to extremely critical. Doctors called my family to tell them I now had less than a 50% chance of survival, and the status of my vitals actually showed I had approximately a 30% chance of ever coming off the ventilator."

But between that Friday evening and Saturday, Coffield began to improve.

"When the nurses checked my levels Saturday morning they were in amazement at the dramatic turnaround," he wrote. "They could not explain what had just took place. Fast forward to Sunday and my next breathing test went as well as it could possible go. Monday morning came around and I was already off the ventilator!"

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Coffield eventually recovered from his symptoms and was released from the hospital over Easter weekend. He shared his experience via Facebook this week.

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