MAULDIN, SC (WYFF) – A South Carolina man who spent more than two months in the hospital with COVID-19 credits his wife’s voice for helping him through his coma and recover.
Don Gillmer, 43, did his best to stay healthy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but on July 5 he tested positive for the virus. Four days later a cough came, so he went to the hospital. He wouldn’t be gone for the next 63 days.
“I received convalescent plasma twice, Remdesevir. Nothing was working. Nothing was helping me to recover, so I will never really forget when they arrived with the papers I needed to sign to get on a respirator. It scared me, ”said Don Gillmer.
About a month later, the 43-year-old man’s temperature reached 40 degrees and he was put into an induced coma. The doctor called his wife, Lacy Gillmer, and said that he might not survive the night. She and her father ran to see him.
“I just told him that he was doing great, that they were taking good care of him. He was in amazing hands, ”said Lacy Gillmer.
Don Gillmer says that his wife’s words helped him survive.
“I swear I heard her, I swear I heard her voice, and when she left, I was stable. She is my angel. She’s the reason I’m here, ”he said.
But even after waking up from a coma, Don Gillmer had a long way to recover, including weeks of physical training while relearning how to walk. He was finally released on September 11.
The 43-year-old man is still in therapy twice a week, saying he would not be without his wife.
“I think about how she drove to the hospital the night she was told I couldn’t go. You know, I can’t imagine that. I usually tell her that I don’t know if I could have been as strong as she was, ”he said.
He is now asking others to take COVID-19 seriously.
“We need to be smart and diligent and take care of each other. It’s about your neighbor, ”he said.
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