Introduction

My name is Shawn Moramarco and my life was flipped upside down by Covid 19. Prior to getting covid I lived a pretty normal life. I lived alone with my dogs, Little man and Enzo. I worked from 11 PM-7 AM. When I wasn’t working I spent some of my free time volunteering for a local fire company as a first responder.

After coming home from a friend's house I realized I wasn’t feeling very well. Like the responsible person I am, I figured I should get tested for the safety and well being of my friends and family. So on April 4th, 2021 I got tested, and to my shock I tested positive for Covid 19. Little did I know that my life from this point forward would never be the same..

My fight with Covid 19

The following few days I was medicated at home. Over the course of the week I felt really off. My temperature was slowly rising over those 6 days. My internal body temperature hit 100 degrees, then 102, and 103. Another thing that I had noticed while using my pulse oximeter was that my blood oxygen levels had been decreasing over the course of the week. My progressively rising temperature, coupled with my decreasing oxygen levels, plus my generally feeling ill finally drove me to call 911 on the evening of April 10.

I was transported to a hospital and put on low flow oxygen. They soon found that they didn’t have availability in the ICU and couldn’t properly treat me, so I was moved to a hospital about 45 minutes away. At the new hospital I was placed on high flow oxygen in an attempt to raise my blood oxygen levels. They found that my blood oxygen levels were not improving so I was put into a medically induced coma and intubated. After this I would stay in a comatose state for the next month and a half.

The events that followed were told to me after I awakened from the coma; Shortly after I was put into the coma the doctor informed my family that I only had about 3 days to live and that they should make the proper arrangements. The next few days my health was slowly declining but somehow I managed to stay alive. The doctors found that my whole body was under intense stress due to Covid. This was having a very adverse effect on my heart as a result. The following days after this showed no better results. My health wasn’t improving in any way and it seemed like nothing the doctors were doing was helping. The next few weeks looked hopeless for me as well. Due to the severe drop in my red blood cells I needed a few blood transfusions. Then the function of my kidneys started to severely decline. Because of the declining function of my kidneys I had to be on dialysis the entire duration of being in the coma. At some point the hospital found that I would need constant dialysis so I was once again moved to a different hospital. They found that the hospital transfer ended up impacting my breathing negatively due to how much stress my body was under. All the while my family and others were hoping and praying for any kind of improvement in my health.

I won the fight… But at what cost?

Soon it seemed like there was a breakthrough. On May 3rd I was officially announced to be covid free, though my journey was nowhere near over. This news served as a little glimmer of hope for my worried family and friends. The doctors also found that I was able to breath on my own through a nasal tube for a very short amount of time. At this point the doctors would wake me up in short bursts and ask me to respond to simple commands. They found that, though weak, I was able to move my hands and upper body but it seemed like any motor function in my lower body was rendered useless. If everything had stayed on improving I would have been moved to a rehabilitation hospital for physical and occupational therapy.

However this is where the good news would stop for the while. At some point while being in a coma the nursing staff at one of the hospitals had neglected to move my unconscious body regularly. This resulted in a bed sore beginning to form on my lower back near the tailbone.I’m told that further testing showed that when attempting to ask me to respond to basic commands I was very dazed and disoriented and could barely respond to anything. This was worrying to the doctors, and upon further investigation they found that my back wound had gotten infected causing a nasty case of sepsis. This meant that an operation was needed and so it was done. Because of all the infected tissue that had to be removed there was a crater bigger than my hand left on my lower back.

I was once again moved to yet another hospital. At this point I only had enough strength in my body to very carefully eat while nursing staff monitored me, and talking was still very difficult. It seemed like my health was improving with me being able to breath on my own with oxygen and not needing to be on dialysis constantly. This improvement in health was short lived because I was soon blindsided by a series of embolic strokes. On top of that, my wound had become infected again and after a CT scan they found two separate tunnels leading to pus pockets that branched away from my wound. So another 2 surgeries were needed. Afterwards I was left with 3 wounds on my back, one very large one and two small ones. A wound vac was needed to help speed up the healing process. Also to prevent any further infections I was placed back on antibiotics.

After 3 to 4 weeks I was finally stable enough to get moved to a rehabilitation hospital. At this point I had full motor function in my upper body and I could talk fairly well, but any attempts to walk were futile as my feet were paralized. As soon as I made it to the rehabilitation hospital I was put to work and started working out my arms and legs to gain strength back. Because of my feet being paralized I obviously had no control over them so when attempting to walk by feet would kind of drag on the floor. They had to make specialized bracers so that my feet would be straightened while I tried walking. I was on a high protein diet to promote muscle growth and worked extensively on strengthening my upper body along with walking. Some more hardships came when I was informed that my insurance company would no longer pay for me to be at the rehabilitation hospital any longer. Despite the fact that I could not walk more than a few feet, and even then I needed my specialized foot bracers and a walker to even begin to stand. Because I knew that when I went home I wouldn’t be able to take care of myself, let alone anything else, I had my brother find a new home for my dogs.

Finally Home

When I went home I needed 24/7 care due to my inability to get around my house and care for myself. My mother temporarily moved in to help take care of me with home health nurses visiting to care for my wound. Readjusting to life back at home was hard enough without the stress of bills piling up. On top of this I was unable to return to work and so I had to rely on short term disability which was only about 60% of what a 40 hour work week would pay. This was a huge cutback for me because I normally worked a lot of overtime. Fast forward to the beginning of October, now my short term disability had run out but I wasn’t panicking because I thought I had long term disability. Well, just two weeks later I was informed that I indeed did not have long term disability. To make matters worse, the same week I had received a phone call from work telling me that if I couldn’t return to work that I would be let go.

So now here I am, thousands of dollars in debt due to my medical expenses and the 10+ ambulance trips I’ve had throughout this entire process. Not to mention the multitude of calls I’ve received from collection agencies. At this point with all these expenses and no source of income I am at risk for losing my house. Everything I’ve worked so hard for over the last decade, gone.

Closing

The past 8 months have perhaps been the worst 8 months of my life. I thought 2020 was bad… clearly 2021 said “hold my beer”. The amount of mental anguish I’ve had to endure throughout this entire process has been exhausting. I’m so tired of all this and I just wish I had my old life back. It feels like at this point I might never get to walk normally again, and If that’s the case then it will be difficult to find a job. This is why it's important that I continue therapy, so I can at least try to regain my ability to walk and get back to work. Nowadays I am unable to get around without the use of my walker or wheelchair.

At this point I am asking for your help. Any donation, big or small, would be greatly appreciated. If you are unable to donate please share. Thank you for taking the time to read my story and for any and all help you can provide.