Surgery Patient Recovers, Doctors Find Coronavirus During Follow-Up
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - A woman from Aurora is sharing her battle with COVID-19, hoping people will understand how serious the virus can be for younger people. She contracted the virus, but has no idea how.
"Sitting in that hospital bed is something I would really hate other people to experience. It's a very lonely experience. It's a really, really hard experience and I never want someone else to go through that. I wouldn't want anyone else to feel that," said Danielle Reinert, a 33-year-old mother of two.
She had an appendectomy in early March and thought she was having complications during the recovery when doctors ordered a CT scan.
"That showed that I had the same patterns that were consistent with the people who had coronavirus," she said.
Reinert went to the ER and spent a week at Parker Adventist hospital. She spent another week at home in isolation.
"I couldn't catch my breath, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't calm myself down so they would come in and up my oxygen. The breathing was the hardest and even now breathing, going up the stairs. I get to the top of the stairs, and I'm out of breath. I need to take a few minutes and catch my breath," Reinert said. "It's a long road. It's not like you go home and you're better."
She's been cleared by doctors, but could still have three more months before she can breathe normally. She's also still concerned about potentially spreading to others, including her husband and kids.
"I'll play with them, but I'm not kissing them., I'm not giving them hugs, and I'm not going anywhere," Reinert said. "I still want to make sure I don't pass this on to anybody else still. Even though they say I can't, I want to be sure I don't."
As stay at home orders get longer, she's hoping people will take them seriously so they don't end up in the hospital too.
"We still have a long way to go with this. And it's not over," she said. "Even though you are home and you feel stuck and your kids are driving you crazy, that feeling is still a better feeling than laying in a hospital bead struggling to breathe."
