{"id":9613,"date":"2023-08-14T17:12:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T00:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/?page_id=9613"},"modified":"2024-12-18T14:11:51","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T22:11:51","slug":"patient-story-building-joy-together-samaritan-health-services","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/samhealth.org\/about-samaritan\/together\/patient-story-building-joy-together-samaritan-health-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Joy Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

Patient Story Mike Dean Covid 19<\/h1>\n\t\t\t
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\u201cI wish everyone would get vaccinated if they can.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

~Mike Dean<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Albany Dad Regrets Not Getting Vaccinated<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was supposed to be a time for catching up on everything Mike Dean, 37, of Albany missed out on during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was the family vacation to Hawaii that had been rescheduled twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was the Garth Brooks concert in Las Vegas, which had been postponed in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It felt so good to be doing what he loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, there was the anticipation of the arrival of his third child, a boy, in September of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the COVID-19 vaccine became available, Mike didn\u2019t get vaccinated because it didn\u2019t seem to him that young and healthy people were getting severely sick. And if he did get sick, he didn\u2019t think it would be that bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a decision he was fortunate enough to live to regret.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re starving for your breath. It\u2019s terrifying, so you start to panic.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

~Mike Dean<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Mike survived a life-threatening case of COVID-19 last summer. He spent 35 days at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis. Some people, even close friends, still don\u2019t believe how sick he was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey thought I was taking it easy, watching movies with an oxygen mask,\u201d Mike said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, he was struggling for each breath until he couldn\u2019t breathe on his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt felt like I was endlessly drowning,\u201d Mike recalled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just weeks before, he was on vacation in Hawaii, snorkeling and splashing in the ocean waves with his wife, Tory Dean, and their sons, Marcus, 6, and James, 9. Then he traveled to the concert in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He felt tired when he got back from Las Vegas but chalked it up to a long weekend. By day three, he was exhausted and had a low-grade fever. He called in sick to work and his employer asked him to get tested for COVID-19. When the result was positive, Mike figured he would quarantine at home and stay away from his family.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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By day five, he had shortness of breath, a high fever and chills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was in sweats in July,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t get warm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he stood to walk to the bathroom, he collapsed. His lungs felt like he had run a marathon.Mike called his doctor, who urged him to go to the emergency department for treatment. As he left home, he had to sit at the bottom of his front steps to catch his breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the hospital, there wasn\u2019t anything they could do except to advise him to continue monitoring his oxygen level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately, the path that you\u2019re headed down, you\u2019ll be back,\u201d emergency department physician Peter Gowing, DO, said. \u201cI hope you\u2019re not, but most likely you will be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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The prediction gave Mike an eerie feeling. And the next day, his oxygen level dropped significantly. When he left for the hospital this time, he had to sit and slide down the front steps one at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike was hospitalized on July 21. He received high-flow oxygen and medicine to calm him and treat \u201cair hunger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re starving for your breath,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels like you are gasping for air. It\u2019s terrifying, so you start to panic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten days after his symptoms began, Mike consented to being placed on a ventilator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He remembers being in intensive care, surrounded by his care team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow much of this do you want to remember?\u201d he was asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to remember any of it,\u201d Mike replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anesthesiologist looked him in the eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is going to hurt,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike remembers calling out in pain. Then he was out.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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When he came off the ventilator, Mike wondered why he wasn\u2019t feeling better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought this was going to be over,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each morning, Hospitalist Bruce Ramsey, MD, greeted him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMike, this is an inch a day scenario. You\u2019re getting better inch by inch,\u201d Dr. Ramsey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike had developed pneumonia. Then his oxygen levels dropped again. Respiratory Therapist Robert Sherwood brought in a BiPap machine to help push air into his lungs through a mask connected to a ventilator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t get your lungs inflated, you could spend the rest of your life on oxygen,\u201d Sherwood said. \u201cYou are too young for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a nurse told Mike that he had been in the hospital three weeks, he was shocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought about my pregnant wife and my kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen I left the hospital, there were like 30 staff members that all lined up in the hallway and clapped for me … they\u2019re amazing.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

~Mike Dean<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Tory Dean, now eight months pregnant, was having complications. They kept in touch by video chat. It was hard to speak because he ran out of breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t talk to my kids,\u201d he said. \u201cI would send videos and try to stage it to where I wasn\u2019t looking so terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike lost 31 pounds. Occupational therapy brought in a step for him to practice until he was confident that he could make it up 15 stairs to his bedroom at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Aug. 24, he was discharged. About 30 care team members assembled at the exit, clapping as he passed by in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At home, neighbors helped take him upstairs. When the boys came home the next day, he was sitting up in bed ready to hug them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey came running to me,\u201d he said. \u201cI just sat there and cried.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four weeks later, he was back at hospital for the birth of his youngest son, Hayes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The joy of holding his newborn is something Mike does not take for granted.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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While he recovered, his grandmother, who has congestive heart failure, had to spend the night in the emergency department because there were no hospital beds available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were all taken by unvaccinated people with COVID, like me,\u201d Mike said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike followed his doctor\u2019s guidance and received the COVID vaccine to help him recover from lingering symptoms and protect him from getting sick again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He respects people\u2019s right to decide if the vaccine is right for them based on their personal circumstances. In hindsight, he wishes he was not so dismissive about the disease or the vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wish everyone would get vaccinated if they can,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe the vaccine would have kept me out of the hospital for 35 days. Maybe it would have kept me from having to go in the hospital, kept me from getting sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a decision I regret.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Protect Yourself<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Vaccination remains the best way to prevent infection and severe illness from COVID-19. While vaccinated people may still contract the virus, they are significantly less likely to become severely ill, be hospitalized or die from the disease. At Samaritan hospitals in Albany, Corvallis, Lincoln City, Lebanon and Newport, an average of nine out of 10 hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nurse Shares Her Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Critical Care Nurse Starla Becker-Tillinghast, RN, explains the unique ways COVID-19 affects patients physically, the treatments involved in fighting the virus and the difficulties critically ill patients experience during hospitalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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