‘A horrible battle’: Utah man back home after 8-month hospitalization from COVID-19
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- Staff at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray applaud as Thomas Kearl is wheeled out of the hospital by his wife, Nanette, on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021, after spending 223 days in the facility recovering from the effects of COVID-19. During that time, he had to be resuscitated four times, was intubated five times and once was given CPR for 17 minutes.
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- This undated photo shows Thomas Kearl, who was admitted to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray on Jan. 11 due to COVID-19. His long medical journey took a happy turn Aug. 24, when he was finally able to leave the hospital after 223 days.
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- Well-wishers gather Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021, at the home of Thomas Kearl, a Salt Lake City man who spent 223 days in the hospital while recovering from COVID-19.
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- Thomas Kearl is pictured with his wife, Nanette, on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021, the day he was released from the hospital after a 223-day recovery from COVID-19.
SALT LAKE CITY — Thomas Kearl spent 223 days in the hospital and eluded death four times as he battled COVID-19. Now home and recovering, the 59 year-old Salt Lake City resident said people should use his saga as proof of the pandemic reality.
“I got this horrible disease before the vaccine was available to me but I made sure to get it two weeks before I got out of the hospital. It made me sick for two days but it was nothing compared to the violent pain and sickness I experienced,” Kearl said during a press conference Thursday morning.”Use me as an example of what could happen and go and get vaccinated. I’ve got until Sept. 16 and I will gratefully roll myself in to get my second vaccine.”
Kearl, who described himself as very healthy before contracting COVID-19, said his family gathered together in Arizona on Dec. 27 to visit with one another. When they arrived home on Jan. 2, his daughter discovered her friend tested positive for the virus. Everyone in the family went and got tested and 10 out of the 12 tested positive. Kearl tested negative. By then, however, he was very sick, so he went to Intermountain Medical Center. Because his test came back negative, he was sent home with medication for a urinary tract infection.
“The next day, I had a fever of 105 and I couldn’t hold my head up,” he said. “My loving wife and son rushed me back to the ER and the doctor told me my test was a false negative. I was sent up to the regular ward to get some oxygen and an IV, but the next day I couldn’t get enough oxygen, so they sent me to the respiratory ICU.”
Still not improving, Kearl was placed on a ventilator. He doesn’t remember much, but does recall lying in a tray like device surrounded by ice to try to bring down his temperature. As time progressed, he said he suffered from several complications including viral pneumonia, renal failure, sepsis and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, just to name a few.
“Throughout the process, nurses and family said I coded out, meaning I died,” he said. “I didn’t want to die. I have too much to live for. I had some incredible spiritual experiences on the other side of the veil which gave me courage and strength to keep fighting, but it was a horrible battle.”
Doctors came into his room and gave him two choices. He could be made comfortable and die or he could have another tracheotomy procedure.
“They said that was my only way to survive, but it was very risky, but it was my only choice,” he said. “Well, me and the trach became best buddies whether I liked it or not. For seven months, I couldn’t taste food because they fed me through a tube. I couldn’t taste water. It was very, very difficult.”
Dr. Peter Crossno, a critical care and pulmonary physician at Intermountain Medical Center, said seeing Kearl recover and return home has been incredible.
“For the past 18 months plus, we’ve seen a lot of bad things happen, so to see this has been very heartening for me. I remember Thom. I treated him a lot,” Crossno said. “Two hundred and twenty-three days in probably the longest I’ve had a patient in the ICU. When patients get intubated, we know the mortality is quite high. I was there one time where he died and we were able to recover him.”
Crossno said when Kearl got his consciousness and voice back, he saw a guy who was extremely invested in getting his life back.
“He did everything we asked and that is very valuable to us as clinicians.” he said.
Dr. John Frampton, Intermountain Medical Center physical medicine and rehabilitation physician, said his team is used to treating patients mostly with strokes or other neurological problems. COVID-19 was new territory.
“We had to learn and grow together as a team to take care of these patients,” he said. “Thom required max assistance with more than two people helping him do 75% to 100% of basic tasks like getting out of bed and standing, getting dressed, brushing his teeth and using the bathroom. Now we’re asking him to work with therapy three hours a day, six days a week and he’s still needing oxygen.”
Crossno said the COVID-19 battle is still in full force and he strongly encourages people to get vaccinated and wear a mask, which he added both work to limit the spread of the virus.
“We can’t let this become a forgotten war. We are fighting patient to patient right now trying to keep people alive and we’re losing members of our team to the stress of this pandemic,” he said. “We’re not only tired; we’re sad. We’ve seen so much misery. We need to protect ourselves but protect our neighbors. That’s what we do as Americans and Utahns. Being good to one another is to protect one another.”