New Holy Name Medical Center program helps COVID patients recover

Thirty-two year-old Christopher Yuen received a clap out at Holy Name Medical Center last week. He rebounded from COVID-19 after nearly three weeks on a ventilator and getting experimental treatments of the arthritis drug Kevzara and the antiviral drug Remdesivir.

He also attributes his turnaround to prayer.

“I believe that a lot of positive thoughts from all of my friends and family, and the nurses at Holy Name were fantastic,” Yuen said.

Yuen spent weeks on his back.

“Honestly, it was very fuzzy. I don’t remember much. I was basically asleep for basically three weeks,” he said.

When he awoke, Yuen said he couldn’t tell if he was dreaming or in reality. His functions deteriorated while he struggled to live and get well. Therapists call it de-conditioning.

“I had a physical therapist stop by. He taught me how to do some leg exercises. It’s mainly my legs I have to focus on right now and my lungs,” he said.

Yuen is among the first COVID-discharged patients to get therapy through Holy Name’s new program called PACER — Post Acute COVID Exercise and Rehabilitation. It includes the typical therapies for helping patients re-learn to speak and walk and re-gain strength. And one component completely new to the regimen: exercising the lungs with a spirometer.

“They said that for each day you’re in the hospital, it’ll take two days to recover,” he said.

Rehab Services Director Jason Kavountzis acknowledges the recovery process could resemble teaching a child.

“With the patients who’ve come off the vents, that’s really where they’re starting. We’ve seen some patients where what we did was on the first day was just have them sit up for 30 seconds to a minute and really that’s all they could tolerate,” Kavountzis said.

Therapists will rely on telehealth like never before to monitor recovery. They make house calls to initiate therapy, get loved ones to buy in and participate and help encourage.

Veronica Victorero says she hears the fears of recovering COVID patients as she shows up in personal protective gear and practices social distancing with her patients.

“Everything that I’m teaching to the patient, the family has to be knowledgeable about so they can work together,” said Victorero. “A touch can do a lot of things, holding the hands can do a lot of things, but unfortunately we’re not at that time. Once you start listening to the patients’ fears and concerns and you’re able to tell them, ‘Let’s take one day at a time. Let’s work together. We’re going to keep you home and you’re one of the lucky ones because you’re home. You’re not in a hospital. You conquered this. You survived this process. Now, we’re going to keep you home.’ And they feel relief. They feel safe. They feel like there’s hope. I feel that there’s hope.”

Yuen says he hasn’t suffered any cognitive issue, but his vivid hallucinations when he awoke has him textingto and about his brother and his brother’s girlfriend’s engagement — even though no one had proposed.

“Hopefully, I didn’t get him into too much trouble,” Yuen said.

An understandable mistake from a man that some thought they’d never see alive again.

03:09