What started out as cold-like symptoms developed into a nearly two-month stay in hospital with several weeks of recovery to come for an Okotoks man.
Rick Neufeldt, 67, shared his story from COVID-19 diagnosis to hospitalization, admission to the ICU and into a coma to a long road ahead of physical therapy.
“I’m spending day number 55 in hospital over COVID,” said Neufeldt in a phone interview Monday from Calgary’s South Health Campus. “I had symptoms and went in for the COVID test on the 27th of February, tested positive and was home until I just kept getting progressively worse until March 2 when I went to the emergency.”
Neufeldt initially had shortness of breath, loss of oxygen and coughing prior to being diagnosed with the original strain of COVID-19, not one of the variants of concern.
Rick’s wife Delores also contracted the virus, testing positive shortly after him, but was fortunate to avoid significant symptoms and has been taking care of him throughout.
“I was in emergency for a short period of time and I’ve got to tell you right now a lot of this is really foggy in my mind,” he said. “They moved me to ICU to keep me under closer observation and then I was put into a coma, put on a ventilator, tracheal tube installed, the whole nine yards, for about three weeks.”
When he was on the ventilator, family was called bedside because they didn’t think he was going to make it, Neufeldt added.
“This is a near death experience, I don’t recall it because I was in a coma,” he said. “It’s been very difficult for the family, sitting there wondering if he’s going to make it.
“Obviously, I pulled through, but this a godforsaken disease that nobody wants.”
Neufeldt has been in the general ward at the hospital since late March and is undergoing physiotherapy, awaiting a transfer to a rehabilitation centre where he can look forward to spending another four to six weeks to get his legs working, he said.
The biggest ongoing concern is immobility, he added.
“Right now my legs are basically clay,” he said. “I’ve got to learn to walk all over again. They’ve got me up on my legs with the aid of some pretty specialized walking equipment.
“But I’m really just going through the motions now and it’s going to be another few weeks of intensive work to get to the point where I can navigate on my own. They promised me they won’t send me home until I’m able to function completely.”
Noting the excellent care and attention he’s received at South Health, in particular, Neufeldt said he’s sure the hospital staff will be happy to have his bed freed up with over 600 hospitalizations in the province for COVID-19.
“They’re going to be happy to see me go to rehab because it opens up a room for them. It’s full, the ward I’m in has 26 people and no empty beds,” he said. “The doctors and nurses are just awesome. I had a doctor in ICU that followed me all the way through and showed up over here in the general ward to make sure I was doing okay and changed dresses he’d applied previously, those types of things.
“The patient care is astounding.”
Coming out of this situation, Neufeldt said he wants to see the country and province ensure the health-care workers are reinforced and adequately supplied and paid and that Canada or Alberta develop its own vaccine manufacturing.
“That’s the only way we’re going to be able to control this thing,” he said. “Because all I’m hearing is it’s going to be a continuous line of injections to keep this virus at bay and we need to be in charge of that.”
Neufeldt reiterated the public health messages of taking this virus seriously, advising folks to get vaccinated, wear a mask and to keep in-person socialization to a minimum.
In the weeks leading up to his positive case of COVID-19, he said he had been careful and at a total of four places.
This was during a time in which Okotoks was seeing a much smaller active case count in the second wave.
In the most recent reporting by the province on April 26, Okotoks had 224 active cases of COVID-19 which is nearly three times the amount it saw during its peak in the first and second waves.
His message for those not believing in the threat of COVID-19 was simple.
“Come trade places with me,” he said. “The message I’ve got for them is if you think this is a hoax shame on you.
“Believe me this is no hoax.”
