On June 29th, Joey Petty left Naples, Florida for what was supposed to be a weekend vacation. He and his girlfriend loaded up the truck and headed to WV where they would be meeting friends to spend the 4th of July holiday. It was to be there first vacation together! He was over the moon excited!
As they arrived in WV 2 days later Joey had started showing signs of being sick, he went to bed when they arrived and he would end up staying in bed for 3 days in WV. He’d never even spend one day actually vacationing… he was terribly sick the whole time they were there. His girlfriend also came down with the same Covid symptoms but, not nearly as bad as Joey.
When his girlfriend gained strength they left WV and headed to North Carolina where they intended to stay over for one evening before continuing back home to Florida. They did stop at a urgent care where joey was tested positive for Covid 19.
The next morning the 6th of July, His girlfriend woke him up to take his medicines and vitamins,… only to find his lips blue and oxygen levels below 82. She called 911 and had him taken to the local hospital.
After Joey was admitted to the hospital he would go from forced oxygen, to by pap oxygen and ultimately a ventilator,… when the ventilator failed to bring up his levels. The doctors had no choice but to use a last resort life support ECMO machine. Joey was taking into surgery and 2 tubes were inserted into his jugular vain to pull the blood out, oxygenate it and put it back into his body. This was done because his lungs were not strong enough to process any oxygen. Joey was on ECMO for 5 days and remains on a ventilator now. He’s still fighting for his life in ICU at the North Carolina hospital. His girlfriend remains in a Airbnb waiting for him to get stronger and be taken off sedation. She FaceTimes him daily to read to him and encourage him while he lays in a medical sedation.
Joey has been a Lineman for more then 19 years, working in Florida and other states providing power and assisting in storms in emergencies. He has risked his life for years to “light up the world”. His heart is just as big as the lights he keeps on. He is genuine and kind to everyone he meets. He’s a son, and a brother and has so many lineman brothers and friends, to know him is to love him!
As he lays here fighting for his life, we all know his work has stopped for the time being… but his bills and
medical expenses are piling up. He would never be the type of man to ask anyone for this type of help but would be one of the first to deserve it. He’s done so much to help his community and people around him all his life,… nows our chance to step up and help him. That way when he regains is functions and gets strong enough to leave the hospital he can concentrate more on getting healthy and not have to worry more about bills and collections.
Thank you so much for considering anything you can do to help Joey, he will be so grateful and more appreciative then I can probably express.
blessings and please ask God to keep showing favor for Joeys life.