In this May 9, 2014 photo, a former drug user reads the bible at the God’s Love rehabilitation center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pastor Celio Ricardo offers them a roof in a makeshift shelter in a nearby neighborhood, a simple structure next to his humble Love of God evangelical church. There, young men sleep side-by-side on plain raw-wood beds. Clean shirts hang from roof beams, meager belongings gathered tidily on battered dressers. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
How does it feel to be nursed back to health from a life-threatening illness?
I’m sure some of you know.
For a man in Ohio, it recently felt like heavenly care.
On Fox & Friends Easter Sunday, Nic Brown guested to recount his battle with the coronavirus.
According to Nic, he spent 18 days in the hospital — seven of those on a ventilator.
He told the show he was released two weeks ago.
But while there — in the care of the brave men and women risking much in order to save many — Nic said he “felt God’s love.”
Thanks to dedicated medical professionals, he now “feels great” — despite the fact that he developed a blood clot in his leg. He believes that was caused by being bedridden for so long.
Here’s Nic:
“The only side effect that I still have — and I’m not sure if it’s due to the virus or if it’s due to some of the drugs that they put in me — is I just have a little bit of a numb spot in the back of my head that has been there since I’ve woken up from a coma. But each day, it’s actually getting better and starting to shrink.”
For more on what led up to his stay in the hospital, Nic explained that he suffered a fever and a headache for about four days before any other symptoms manifested:
“It was not until the fifth day when I developed a cough that I felt it was time to go in and see if I had the flu.”
After he was admitted with a severe case of COVID-19, doctors and nurses rescued him from death.
His lungs began to fail, and he had to be intubated.
In a video on YouTube, he described the severity of his state:
“I was on full life support. … There was a time during this process when the hospital reached out to my wife and had to have the discussion about end-of-life options.”
At a more functional point during his stay, as a way of thanking the workers, he’d leave notes on the glass window of his room.
One message:
“This has been the most impactful window in my life on days when I watched you work hard to keep me and others alive unable to thank you for the time that you poured into me.”
On Fox & Friends, he called the staff “amazing people in a situation where you’re in isolation and you have no contact with your family.”
To him, it was the love of God:
“Those nurses treated me like they were my family. It was unbelievable, the care and the kindness that they showed me. I really felt God’s love through those people, and they were amazing. I cannot say that enough.”
After he was discharged from the ICU, one worker brought him cookies and a card.
Nic Brown is a blessed and grateful man:
“I told my wife I would love to some day maybe take all of them out to a dinner just to show them my appreciation.”
It’s a wonderful thing to see those who tend to us when we’re broken get the credit they deserve. And in this time of national pandemic, they are indeed our heroes.
Appropriate on this Resurrection Sunday, John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Considering the peril in which our medical workers are presently potentially placing themselves, I’d say that verse bolsters Nic’s claim.
Happy Easter to you, and to all those who care for our sick and needy.
-ALEX
See 3 more pieces from me:
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