PB man on brink of death, survives COVID-19

Jimmie and Martelie Sanders of Poplar Bluff are COVID-19 survivors, but his story nearly ended with him being the first Butler County death.

While Martelie’s symptoms were mild, her husband of 48 years was hospitalized for 26 days at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center. Ten of those days were spent on a ventilator.

Doctors, she said, told her he was “very, very sick, and that he could die.”

The scary part was “we knew that we had been exposed because a friend had told us a week earlier that he was exposed,” Martelie explained. “ … We both had symptoms. We called the hospital, and they sent us to Butler County (Health Department).

“Butler County said we did not meet the criteria to get tested because we did not run a fever. I got better, and Jimmie got worse.”

State criteria for testing at the time included that individuals have a fever and be showing symptoms.

On the morning of April 4, Martelie said, her husband could hardly breathe.

“I called the hospital again,” she said. “They said come to the Coppertop, and we’ll test him for COVID.”

Once swabbed for COVID-19, she said, Jimmie’s pulse ox was checked.

“His oxygen level had dropped down to 85%,” Martelie said. “They took us inside and called Dr. (Donald) Piland,” who thought he had pneumonia.

“They did a chest X-ray and admitted him to the hospital,” Martelie said. “I just had to drop him off at the emergency room door. I couldn’t even go into the hospital with him.”

Jimmie said he “kind of” remembers the pneumonia part.

“I remember walking in and thinking, I’ve got to find a place to sit down or I’m going to fall,” he said. “From there, I don’t remember much more of what happened.”

Martelie said her husband was placed in the COVID-19 unit “because they suspected he had it.”

Four days later, she said, test results confirmed Jimmie was COVID-19 positive, and a day later he was moved into ICU.

At 5:30 a.m., April 13, he “went on the ventilator,” she said. “I kept asking if I could come see him, and they said, this was scary, the only time people were let into ICU is if it’s an end-of-life situation.

“I didn’t want to get that conversation.”

Martelie said she was “perfectly fine to talk to the nurses if it meant I didn’t have to go through that part of it.”

Although the nurses told Martelie she could call at any time, “I didn’t want to bother the nurses very often because their job was to care for him,” she said. “I called the nurses every three hours. I would just pace until I could call the nurses again.

“Anytime they needed information or needed permission to do something, they called me. They are fantastic nurses at that hospital.”

Being an Air Force wife for 21 years, “you’re used to separation, him not being home, but this was totally different,” she said.

During their marriage, Martelie said, her husband also has “put me through the wringer a few times with his health issues. … He has a spine disease … he has an implant in his back that controls the pain signals to his brain.

“He’s had three heart attacks; he has 12 stents in his heart. He’s a diabetic.”

COVID spreads among friends, during party

Jimmie and his wife were among seven members of their circle to get sick after attending two events in late March before they knew they should stay home.

Being over 65, with his health issues, Jimmie was considered high-risk for COVID-19.

“Don’t be around your friends; I wish they would have told us that a week earlier, but we didn’t know,” Martelie said. “We were all healthy; none of us even had a cold.”

Although Jimmie doesn’t know exactly where he and his wife were exposed to COVID-19, they did attend two events ­— a Shrine Club meeting and a birthday party at a restaurant — on March 20 and 21 with about the same 30 or so people.

“The next thing I know (about two to three days later), I’m sicker than a dog and in the hospital with pneumonia,” Jimmie said.

Seven — six from Butler County and one from Carter County — tested positive for COVID-19, “but nobody got sick like me,” Jimmie said. “ … the doctor said my next step was death. That’s how close … you just don’t know how lucky you are.”

Martelie wasn’t tested until April 15, and her positive results came two days later.

“I felt like my lungs were bruised, and I had one day of stomach distress, where I threw up,” Martelie explained. “I never throw up.”

Martelie said her stomach was upset for a couple of days, then “I got a cough. Probably three days was the max I had symptoms, other than the cough.

“I kept the cough for two weeks.”

Neither ran a temperature, Martelie said.

“The highest (his) fever got was the day he went to the hospital with pneumonia; it was 100.01,” she said. “… Everybody kept saying you have to run a fever … . We found out, not everybody runs a fever.”

On the other side of COVID

Upon being discharged April 30, Jimmie said, he was “in awe” as he was wheeled down a hallway lined with hospital staff cheering and applauding him and then greeted by family and friends outside.

“I’m 69 years old, and I beat this thing,” Jimmie said. “ … I guess I’m pretty lucky. That’s what the doctors told me, as old as I was.”

Jimmie said his prognosis is good, but it will be eight to 10 months before he gets “back on track.”

“Right now, I’m just weak,” he said. “I’m getting stronger every day.”

During his hospitalization, the couple said, Shrine Club members did yard work and provided meals.

“It’s the thought and the support … There’s no words to describe it,” Jimmie said.

“How do I pay this back,” Jimmie asked. “You really don’t. You just wait your turn to repay it (forward). It’s the only way to pay it back.”