Family of Missouri COVID patient on ventilator 100 days to share story on national TV

Lisa Gutierrez
·1 min read

The story of Gwen Starkey, a 59-year-old COVID-19 patient from the Kansas City region who has been on a ventilator for more than 100 days, will go national Tuesday.

Starkey’s daughter, April Shaver of Kansas City, is scheduled to share the story of her mother’s coronavirus battle on “Erin Burnett OutFront” at 6 p.m. Tuesday on CNN.

The Star had profiled the family on Monday.

Starkey, of Polo, Missouri, had just retired last fall after 26 years at the Ford Motor Co. Kansas City Assembly Plant when she got infected in February. The mother and grandmother was healthy and active, but felt like she was dying when she was admitted to Liberty Hospital with pneumonia caused by the virus, Shaver said.

Since then, Starkey has been a patient at three hospitals in the Kansas City area and has been hooked up to a mechanical breathing machine for more than 100 days.

Gwen Starkey, 59, was just a few months into retirement after 26 years at the Ford plant in Claycomo when she got COVID-19 in February. Since then she has spent more than 100 days on a ventilator.
Gwen Starkey, 59, was just a few months into retirement after 26 years at the Ford plant in Claycomo when she got COVID-19 in February. Since then she has spent more than 100 days on a ventilator.

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On Saturday, Starkey was able to breathe on her own for the first time since March 5, Shaver said on Monday. She is a patient now at Kindred Hospital Northland, where she is being slowly weaned off the ventilator.

Three hours free of the machine on Saturday was followed by five hours without it on Sunday, said Shaver.

She hopes that sharing her mother’s story will prove to naysayers that COVID-19 is real and will encourage people to get vaccinated.