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In the years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, we have learned that the virus can affect individuals differently. Although some people experience only mild symptoms (or have no symptoms at all), the virus has caused more than 2.8 million deaths worldwide.
In an interview with TODAY, Colby Vondenstein shared his experience with COVID-19 – which led to two organ transplants.
According to Vondenstein’s wife, Tori, their nightmare began days after the couple and their three children celebrated Christmas with family members in Texas. The 24-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 and began to experience the traditional symptoms; fever, body aches and cough. But his fever quickly resolved – apparently a positive indication of his recovery.
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“You read about the symptoms, like: these are common symptoms,” Tori said TODAY. “He was not really short of breath in the beginning.”
Initially, their strategy was to ‘let’ [the virus] take his course “and wait until things gradually improve. However, Vondenstein’s symptoms began to worsen, and Tori decided it was time for a trip to the emergency room.
“Two days later he was in Baytown Methodist Hospital to fight for his life,” she recalls. “They gave him steroids to help the lungs, but they could not do much because the kidneys weakened. They said he would not make it.”
On Jan. 11, he was transferred to Houston Methodist Hospital, where affairs took a very aggressive turn.
“I did not really get scared before I woke up, and they had all these tubes in me, and I did not know what was going on,” Vondenstein said.
Howard Huang, a pulmonologist at Houston Methodist, tells TODAY that when Vondenstein arrived at the hospital, he was already in renal failure and experiencing ‘severe respiratory distress’. Huang even described his condition as a “headache” and placed Vondenstein on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), often referred to as extracorporeal life support.
“He became completely dependent on ECMO and initially needed very heavy sedation,” Huang said. TODAY. “The problem has become that you have a person who is now sitting on the ECMO machine, and can find no real viable solution.”
Vondenstein remained in the hospital for two months, after which Huang believed that his lung or kidney function would not improve, no matter what measures they took. His care team reduced their losses and put him on the waiting list to have both organs replaced.
“It’s obviously a very serious illness in a desperate situation,” Huang explained. “We usually like transplantation as a controlled process rather than under emergencies. He really did not have that much time on these devices. We felt he had a reasonable chance of getting through this. Transplanting is in just “A handful of cases have been reported for COVID-19. There are probably less than 100 cases worldwide so far.”
While Vondenstein and his family eagerly waited for matches, Tori remembers that the nurses ‘did everything’ to keep her husband alive.
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“On February 27, I come in the morning, and the doctor stops me in the ward and just says it’s getting harder and harder and we do not get any more time, like days. To watch him go through it and watch him literally fight to “I can not even describe it,” she said. “It’s the worst pain I’ve ever felt. I can only describe it as someone being tortured.”
Fortunately, suitable matches were found for both a lung and kidney transplant, and Vondenstein underwent both surgeries on 28 February. After two months of falling into and out of his consciousness and four weeks after the surgery, he was finally able to get up from his hospital bed and take a few steps.
“It feels good to be able to go out again and take some steps,” he said. TODAY. “I honestly don’t think (the doctors) thought I was going to recover so quickly. They all looked shocked when they saw me doing it.”
Huang said Vondenstein is on a fast track to recovery and predicts he will spend a few more weeks in hospital before being considered ‘out of the woods’.
Vondenstein and his wife chose to share their story in an effort to raise awareness about the potential seriousness of COVID-19, and to raise money that goes to their medical bills. Tori calls on young people to ‘just be more careful’.
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“We are not going to eat out, we are not doing it all. But even if you get sick, you need to be more careful with your signs and symptoms, know when to seek help or seek medical attention. You only realize this is happening to someone first. that you love how deadly the virus can be, ‘she continued.
“I do not wish it on anyone,” Vondenstein said. “It’s definitely hard to go through what I’m going through.”
A GoFundMe was created to help the couple with medical expenses. The couple raised more than $ 15,000 with nearly $ 50,000 to go until they reached their goal.