COVID Survivor From South Jersey, His Doctor, Compete In Triathlon

COLLINGSWOOD, NJ — Jon Rosen of Collingswood is one of those who might be considered the epitome of toughness.

Rosen said he was admitted to Cooper University Health Care in Camden on April 24, 2020, to be treated for COVID-19.

Wendy Marano, a Cooper University Health Care spokesperson, told Patch that while Rosen was a patient, he developed a series of complications and pneumonia, and eventually had part of his lung removed, according to Marano.

He spent most of the next eight weeks either heavily sedated or in a coma, and almost always in the hospital's intensive care unit or on a ventilator.

His outlook was bleak, said Adam Green, a critical care intensivist at Cooper University Health Care critical care who was also one of Rosen's doctors.

"We gave him treatments ... only reserved for the sickest people," Green said in an interview. "It was amazing that he made it through, especially in a time when most people didn't. It was really amazing that he lived."

So amazing that, when Rosen woke up from his coma, although all he could so was "wiggle [his] big toe," it was thrilling.

Rosen was discharged from Cooper University Health Care a while later, on June 20, 2020, which some might say was a victory in its own right.

But Rosen told Patch he was determined to do more.

For example, he was determined to meet Green and Emily Damuth (another one of his doctors who was also a critical care intensivist at Cooper University Health Care) for coffee so they could see him outside of the hospital setting.

"I walked the two blocks to our meeting spot just to show off," Rosen said. "I knew that 2 blocks would be a stretch, but I wanted them to see me mobile."

Although Rosen made it through that day, he knew he could not return to his job as a nursing supervisor and that there were still many long days of outpatient treatment ahead of him, he said.

"I had to relearn to walk, to sit up, to lift my arms," Rosen said. "I also had to learn how to swallow and eat."

When he met up with Rosen, Green and Damuth again a year later, he "was in much different physical shape," Marano said. During this second reunion of sorts in 2021, Green, who was an avid runner and athlete before he ever met Rosen, shared some personal news.

"I had been preparing for my first Ironman competition, which was just a couple of weeks away when we met for coffee," Green said. "And Rosen said, 'Oh, that's something I want to do.'"

At the time, the idea of Green and Rosen — doctor and patient — competing in a triathlon seemed more like a joke than a reality, the pair said.

However, by Thanksgiving of the same year, Rosen had recovered enough and trained enough to compete in a 5K event, according to Marano.

With the help of therapists who showed Rosen how to train with spin bikes and swimming, it started to look increasingly plausible that the doctor-patient team might happen someday, according to Marano.

By the late winter of 2022, he got his bike and was now able to run, swim and bike, Marano said.

Thus, Rosen and Green revisited the idea of the doctor-patient team and decided to put their skills to the test during this weekend's Atlantic City Triathlon.

"The one that we're doing is a small one," Rosen said in all seriousness. "It's a quarter-mile swim in the bay, then an 11-mile bike ride on the Atlantic City Expressway and then a 5k run on the boardwalk."

He said he's dedicating his performance to many different people.

"I'm doing it for the people like me who went through what I went through ... to show that they can get up and they can push themselves and they can get there too [and] their families and loved ones in their honor," he said.

He said he is also doing it "for the nurses, doctors and medical teams that took care of me ... to show them that what they do makes a difference."

Green, who like so many health care workers whose professional and personal lives were turned upside down from COVID-19, he said he's running in the hopes it shows his colleagues that the past two years "wasn't all bad."

Got a news tip? Story idea? Send me an email with the details at janel.miller@patch.com