'All My Doctors Say I Had COVID': Frankfort Square Man

FRANKFORT, IL — In mid-January, Frankfort Square resident Chuck Anderson began feeling flu-like symptoms. Now, nearly eight months later, Anderson has been hospitalized several times, suffered a stroke, underwent a carotid artery surgery and, most recently, a triple bypass.

Before this, the 61-year-old told Patch, he had never spent time in the hospital. He has no pre-existing conditions. In January, he came down with a fever, chills and a cough that wasn't getting better, so he went to urgent care.

Anderson was told to go to the emergency room, was quickly admitted to the hospital, and then spent several days in the ICU.

Anderson said his oxygenation was below 80 percent. An average reading should be between 95 and 100 percent.

"I was about an hour or two away from a ventilator," he said.

Anderson said he didn't realize how sick he was, and several of his doctors have now told him that he shouldn't be alive. As he was recovering in the hospital, he also began to experience numbness in his right arm. Doctors told him he had suffered a stroke.

"When we first went in, no one was talking about COVID. I was tested for virtually everything, and I tested negative," Anderson said. "I wasn't tested for COVID, because they didn't have a test."

Anderson continued experiencing various symptoms, including hair loss, and a loss of his sense of smell and taste. Three months after he was first hospitalized, a coronavirus antibody test was administered. It came back negative.

"We've since learned that the antibodies at best only last about three months," Anderson said, adding that his doctors now want a different antibody test that is more in depth.

"All my doctors say I had COVID," he said. "It's hard because I don't have a piece of paper to show to people that says I had it."

Doctors have also said Anderson is a "COVID long-hauler" due to the variety of symptoms he experienced.

Since Anderson was hospitalized in January, there were no restrictions at hospitals like there are currently. He said his primary doctors and a few friends all got sick after being in contact with him.

Anderson said he hadn't traveled anywhere around the time he got sick. However, his wife, who experienced mild flu-like symptoms, works in a daycare. Anderson himself works as a painter and was doing work in several homes at the time as well.

In early August, Anderson underwent triple bypass surgery after an angiogram showed three out of five arteries were blocked. Doctors also continue to watch his lungs because he suffered double pneumonia.

"I want to communicate to people that it's a very real thing that we're dealing with," Anderson said. "It's hard to even go out these days."

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