Area man on road to recovery: Irwin spent 3 months in hospital battling COVID-19

May 14—With so many people in the community having COVID at least once during the it is sad to think of who all we have lost and the ones that came really close to losing their life.

J. W. Irwin of Fargo is one of those who survived after a long fight with COVID.

Irwin initially started not feeling well on Christmas evening in 2021. He decided to get tested and got his results Dec. 30. It was positive for the Delta Variant. Irwin quarantined at home and rested. He watched his oxygen level on an Oximeter, hoping to feel better soon and that the worst was behind him.

Unfortunately it wasn't. Irwin started to get worse and was having more trouble breathing than normal with his asthma. His oxygen level was falling below 90. He went to AllianceHealth Woodward on Jan. 3rd, 2022. From there he was admitted to the ICU.

The whole experience was very scary, not only for him but also for his family.

"Everybody's heard the horror stories about people going on the vent and dying. I've known a lot of people that didn't come back after the vent and I had that anxiety about it," Irwin said. "But, it got to the point where I could not take but a half breath. Finally I decided for them to put me on the vent, I can't do this anymore."

The lowest point ever that his oxygen got to was in the 70's.

"They were pumping a lot of oxygen into me. I got to the point where I figured it's either if I don't come off of the vent alive, oh well, because I will not make it the way I am now," Irwin said. "At least I will have a shot at surviving with the vent. They put me in a medically induced coma for three and a half weeks and the vent for two months."

When he was first on the ventilator, it was through the mouth and a feeding tube through the nose. Later the ventilator was through his trachea.

"It is weird and an odd feeling of not being able to remember three and a half weeks of my life," Irwin said.

Irwin's wife Rebekah also shared the experience from her side of things. She said "there was a time when the traveling nurses didn't realize, at first, that they needed to contact me and keep me filled in on his status. He couldn't talk, I couldn't go see him and the feeling of not knowing how he was doing was the worst part."

The day J. W. went on the ventilator she was able to go up there but not able to see him. The doctor wanted him to be in a good place for when he went under. She asked the doctor, "what if he doesn't make it, is this going to be the last time I get to talk to him? The doctor told me, 'this is not an end of life situation.' There were many other cases where it was that situation for them and they didn't make it."

The whole ICU staff were top notch the Irwins said.

"People talk about the bad things that happen at certain hospitals and I was a little nervous at first. But they really took care of us, of me. I was on the shady side of death and they saved me," he said. "I am an information person, I need information to make the best decision and help myself. Everyone told me what is going on, what is happening. The night ICU staff was the same way. Most of them had already been taking care of COVID patients for almost two years and they knew what to do."

After he tested negative multiple times, his wife was able to go visit him. She'd drop their son off at school and be there all day until it was time to pick him up from school.

"I have a new appreciation for things, especially going through an ordeal like that. I was able to go outside three times in four months. We were going from our fellowship hall to the church and I heard birds chirping and the sun beaming down on me, I really enjoyed it," he said.

COVID was not only hard on J. W. and Rebekah, but their son Braxton as well.

"School has been tough enough with the new COVID rules, distance learning and then not knowing if his dad was going to make it. He was at home with me one day because school was out. I got a phone call from the nurse and he was able to hear for himself what his dad's status was. He was finally relieved of some anxiety," Rebekah Irwin said.

J.W. Irwin was able to leave the Woodward hospital on April 4th, 90 days later. Then he went to St. Mary's in Enid for rehab for three weeks.

Being in a bed for that long and also being in a medically induced coma for over three weeks Irwin had lost the ability to walk and move his left bicep. His heart was beating and a machine was moving his lungs, so his muscles atrophied.

He also used a speaking valve during speech therapy while he was being weaned off of the ventilator. He had to learn how to talk again due to the tracheotomy, his vocal chords weren't used and had to be woken up like the rest of his muscles.

They almost weren't accepted to go to St. Mary's. The application was looked at a second time and was approved.

"We were looking at having to sell everything and move him into a nursing home if we couldn't go there," Rebekah Irwin said.

"They did a great job. I don't know that I'd want to go anywhere else," J. W. Irwin said.

"I also want to thank the church, Bible Baptist, for all of their prayers that helped us get through this," Rebekah Irwin added.

Irwin said the smartest thing he did was to go on the ventilator before it was too late. He believes that is what helped pull him through. It was so his body could rest.

"I'm glad to be out of hospital's. I was missing my family. It's good to be home," he said.