Volume 7 • 2020 • Issue 5

which requires sedatives and paralytic medications and painkillers such as fentanyl and hydromorphone,” he says. After that, Dr. Chow doesn’t remember anything from the next five weeks. Patients who are ventilated often have damage to their vocal cords afterward. “My voice is different now,” says Dr. Chow, but he considers himself lucky that his sense of taste and smell are unchanged. After seven weeks, the feeding tube was removed and Dr. Chow was able to drink clear broth. “I kept asking for more. I wished that I could order room service, but a hospital is not a hotel,” says Dr. Chow with a chuckle. Learning to walk again was humbling. At first, Dr. Chow couldn’t take a single step, even with the assistance of a walker. Over several weeks, he increased his strength and endurance. “There is so much that you take for granted when you’re healthy,” he says. “I used to be a ski instructor.” After 19 days on a ventilator, Dr. Chow was healthy enough to be taken off of it. But he was in a delirium caused by the sedation. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t walk. He didn’t recognize his brother. He couldn’t swallow, so he had to be fed via a tube. He’d lost 40 pounds. In June, speaking with CDA Essentials via Zoom from his home in Port Coquitlam, B.C., Dr. Chow smiles into his webcam. Occasionally, his two grown children, home from university, walk through the background. “I almost feel lucky that I don’t remember anything. I’m not suffering from PTSD due to a traumatic experience,” he says. “I learned about everything that happened to me only after I was better. When I got home, I read the texts that my wife sent to our extended family and learned many details that I didn’t know.” Eight days after the nasal swab and after he’d been intubated, Dr. Chow’s COVID-19 test came back positive. He suffered from secondary bacterial pneumonia. The port for his central line got infected. Septicemia caused his liver and kidneys to struggle. Stacey could only check in on his brother through a window. Even Dana couldn’t visit him. After two weeks, Dr. Chow seemed to be faring better and was taken off the ventilator, but his blood oxygen levels plummeted, so he was intubated again. As better treatments for patients with COVID-19 were discovered, his doctors tried them; they turned Dr. Chow onto his stomach to help oxygen reach the lower parts of his lungs. After 19 days on a ventilator, Dr. Chow was healthy enough to be taken off of it. But he was in a delirium caused by the sedation. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t walk. He didn’t recognize Stacey. He couldn’t swallow, so he had to be fed via a tube. He’d lost 40 pounds. “I was like a zombie,” he says. He continued to test positive for the virus for many days. When the aftereffects of sedation wore off and he tested negative for COVID-19, Dr. Chow found himself at the beginning of a long and grueling recovery. With his negative test, Dana was allowed to visit him, but only a few times. “A physical therapist helped to get me walking again. Muscles atrophied and weakened because I couldn’t move while I was ventilated,” he says. “A speech pathologist helped me with my speech and swallowing.” Before Dr. Chow could have his feeding tube removed, he had to pass a modified barium swallow test. He was doing all the exercises his speech pathologist gave him, but he failed the test twice. “I was pretty down and even a bit angry,” he says. “I said to my wife, ‘I’ve never failed anything in my life.’” Dr. Chow really missed the pleasures of food and daydreamed about fruit. He craved roast beef. “I’m a pretty positive person. And my wife and brother gave me the necessary kick in the pants when I needed to stay motivated to keep working on my recovery,” he says. Hospitalization and Recovery I ssues and P eople 23 Issue 5 | 2020 |