The present Marjorie Croumie got for her 75th birthday last Dec. 23 is likely the best one she ever got. It was the day she was taken off the ventilator due to her battle with COVID-19.
It all started in early December when her son Dave came home not feeling quite right. Given the infection rates at the time, Croumie and her son went and got a COVID-19 test on Dec. 9 and then isolated at home, which she’d essentially been doing since the pandemic began nine months prior. While still awaiting her test results, Croumie too began to not feel herself. In the early morning hours of Dec. 12, she got up to use the bathroom and became dizzy and unable to get back to bed. That’s when Dave called the ambulance.
Her oxygen levels were low and upon arriving at Monadnock Community Hospital, she was diagnosed with COVID-19 and COVID pneumonia. She was sent to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon because as her daughter Deb Roy said “she was so ill, Dartmouth was where she needed to be.” Her memories from the ambulance ride and the first few days in the hospital are scattered. She remembers when her wedding rings were taken off because she hadn’t removed them in decades.
“I just know the ride to Dartmouth was the longest ride I’ve ever taken,” she said.
Roy, who couldn’t visit her mom in the hospital because of restrictions placed on guests due to COVID-19, said they tried using a breathing mask that Sunday to see if it would help improve her breathing.
By Tuesday, Dec. 15, Roy said doctors called and asked permission to place Croumie on a ventilator and in a coma. She agreed, but not without asking for a prognosis. The answer she got was hopeful.
“At that point, I’d take hopeful,” Roy said. “Because we were preparing for the worst.”
For eight days, Croumie was in a coma, as her children were kept abreast of how she was doing and making medical decisions on her behalf.
“I lost those days,” Croumie said. “I don’t remember a thing.”
Roy described it as scary mixed with a sense of helplessness. Even if she had been allowed to visit, Roy would have been unable to because of the need to quarantine as she was the one who gave her mom a ride for her initial COVID test. She was given daily updates, if not more frequently, and there were plenty of moments of uncertainty.
“Not being there and able to hold her hand was hard,” Roy said.
She said making medical decisions was not easy and worried she was making the right ones.
“But what am I going to say, no?” Roy said.
As a way to stay connected, Roy texted her mom’s phone every day to say she loved her – even though her mom wouldn’t see them.
“It was something that made me feel better,” she said.
During that week-plus, doctors had to revive her using a defibrillator due to an atrial fibrillation with her heart and she was paralyzed to keep her from trying to breathe over the ventilator.
“When I woke up I couldn’t use my hands or feet or feed myself,” she said. “It took me a couple days to get my strength back.”
For two days, Roy said they had to prone her mom, the act of flipping Croumie onto her stomach for eight hours a day. They slowly started to bring her out of the coma, but the doctors acknowledged they still weren’t out of the woods. If Croumie didn’t respond after the ventilator was removed, there was a real chance they would have to perform a tracheotomy.
“Thankfully she came out on her birthday and did well,” Roy said.
The family got together virtually to video chat every day and it certainly brought upon a new appreciation for life.
She spent a total of five weeks between her stay at Dartmouth and a rehab facility in Concord. She was in the hospital for Christmas and to ring in 2021. Her stay in rehab meant learning how to walk again.
“It was not the best Christmas ever,” Croumie said.
On Jan. 18, Croumie finally got to go home and it was a joyous reunion for Roy. In the months that have followed, Croumie has made steady progress in recovery but still has lingering issues that require visits with a pulmonary doctor and heart specialist. There’s been fluid build-up that has affected her heart and marks on her lungs that are concerning.
“The pulmonary doctor said I’m a miracle,” she said.
The doctor said “what she went through, a lot of people don’t come out of,” Roy said.
She still has to use a walker from time to time and always uses a cane to get around, something she didn’t need before. There’s swelling in her legs and difficulties breathing when she’s up moving around and talking for an extended period of time.
“I’m still recuperating in one way or another,” Croumie said. “It was a scary situation.”
Even though Croumie always intended to get the COVID-19 vaccine, when she got sick it was just starting to become available to front-line workers. Once she passed the 90 day waiting period after her illness, Croumie got her doses in March and April. The rest of her family has been fully vaccinated as well.
It’s difficult for Croumie to understand why some don’t want to be vaccinated.
“A lot of people don’t believe it’s as bad as it is,” she said. “Those that don’t believe it’s something, think about it – get that shot.”
Roy also intended to get the vaccine, but knowing what her mom went through brought about a new sense of urgency.
“Until you have someone close to you go through it, you have no idea,” Roy said. “It’s scary; it’s serious. I’ve seen it first hand.”
Despite her best efforts to stay home and away from others, Croumie still came down with COVID-19, which for her shows just how persistent the virus is. And even now fully vaccinated, she is still leery about the variant strains.
While she’s still dealing with lingering side effects, Croumie knows it could have been a lot worse.
“I’m thankful I came out of it because (my son) would have never forgiven himself,” she said. “And I’m one of the lucky ones who didn’t have to come home with oxygen. At my age, a lot of people don’t come off it.”
Now, she has a different outlook on life.
“It’s been a long haul and I really don’t wish it upon anyone,” Croumie said. “So don’t take life for granted because you don’t know how long it’s going to be here.”