The Kruzel family, (L to R) Brittney, John, Laurie and John Carter, poses for a photo in Hawaii in August 2018.

Around Thanksgiving 2021, John Kruzel came down with a sore throat and a cough.

Kruzel, 55, of Frankfort, figured he had bronchitis or some type of mild infection. He celebrated Thanksgiving with his family without any issues and did not think much of the symptoms.

The days following the holiday brought more of the same. His sore throat and cough stubbornly remained, but it didn’t stop him from putting up Christmas decorations and working around the house. Suddenly, on Dec. 5, his condition made a turn for the worse.

“Sunday morning, it was a whole different world,” Kruzel says. “I got out of bed, walked downstairs and I was completely out of breath. I had to stop midway down the stairs to catch my breath. I thought, ‘Something went really wrong overnight.’”

“I was suffocating”

His wife, Laurie, took him to a nearby health clinic, where he tested positive for COVID-19.

“The test came back positive for COVID quickly, but the bigger concern was my blood oxygen level. My blood oxygen level had plummeted to the high 70s at the clinic,” Kruzel says. “They wanted to call an ambulance right there. They said my oxygen was low enough that I could go into cardiac arrest. I told them no, I did not want to go to the local hospital. I would only go to Edward Hospital. It’s where I have been going for a decade. All my doctors are there and my medical history is readily available.”

Normal blood oxygen levels hover between 95% and 100%.

“I could feel my body was slowing down. I began to lose motor skills at the clinic. I couldn’t write my name. I thought I was having a stroke,” he says. “It’s horrible. A person can go days without water. You can survive about a month without food. But you’ve only got minutes left when you can’t get oxygen into your blood stream. It was an education that I was not looking for that Sunday afternoon.”

Kruzel’s wife dropped him off at the Edward Hospital Emergency Department entrance, where someone immediately offered him a wheelchair.

“I told them who I was and that the clinic had called ahead to tell Edward I was on my way,” he says. “They were expecting me at the desk and took me directly to the ER. I couldn’t believe they were waiting for me.

“They started me on oxygen, did a chest X-ray and CT scan. They diagnosed me with COVID pneumonia,” Kruzel says. “I was suffocating. My blood pressure had to be dropping because the nurses had a hard time starting an IV. The veins were just collapsing.” After several attempts on both arms and hands, one small vein next to a knuckle was successfully tapped.

Once diagnosed, Kruzel was moved to a COVID isolation room on the fifth floor of the hospital and a variety of COVID treatments began that night with Remdesivir, steroids, anti-inflammatory medication and lots of oxygen.

“The most important concern from the moment I walked in the ER was breathing and copious amounts of oxygen to keep breathing,” Kruzel says. “They knew exactly what they had to do to keep me going. They had all the confidence in the world in their COVID treatment regimen when I didn’t really understand what has happening.”

“I’ve never been that sick”

The first two days of inpatient treatment were “absolutely horrible” Kruzel says, as he struggled to breathe even with the oxygen and medication.

“I went into uncontrollable tremors Sunday night. Breathing was difficult, they kept pumping in oxygen. I’ve never had to spend so much time concentrating on breathing,” Kruzel says. “I’d sit up on the edge of the bed and I’d be exhausted. I’d watch my pulse oxygen plummet, just from sitting up. I’ve never been that sick.”

Whenever his oxygen level dropped too low, nurses were at his door immediately, Kruzel says.

John McAnelly, M.D., checked in on Kruzel daily, as well as Twanda Jackson, patient care technician.

“Twanda is the most positive influence I had in the hospital. She was there through it all, she was so kind, so helpful,” Kruzel says. “Dr. McAnelly was great too, very positive. He was there every morning. I’m still alive because they knew exactly what to do.”

Once the virus ran its course, the recovery process started. Kruzel did breathing exercises several times each day to begin rebuilding his lung capacity. Throughout the night, nurses would remind him to turn to a new position to help clear his lungs.

About a week later, he started to improve to the point that he felt he would be able to go home soon.

“You don’t know how it’s going to affect someone”

Kruzel and his wife originally planned to visit their daughter, Brittney, a student at the University of Hawaii, for Christmas. The couple were unvaccinated against COVID-19 until shortly before Thanksgiving, when they received shots of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in preparation for the Hawaii trip.

Kruzel’s wife and mother-in-law also became infected with COVID-19 around the same time he did, yet both women only experienced mild symptoms and were able to recover with rest at home, Kruzel says.

“You just don’t know how it’s going to affect someone,” Kruzel says. “COVID is absolutely deadly. I found it amazing is how sneaky it is. You think you have something else, but it’s COVID. It’s a Trojan horse.”

Jonathan Pinsky, M.D., medical director of infection control at Edward Hospital, recommends vaccination as the primary way to prevent severe illness and death from COVID-19. Experts recommend everyone eligible get COVID vaccines as soon as possible, particularly with the more-contagious delta and omicron variants circulating.

The immune protection of the vaccine doesn’t start until two weeks after completing the primary series, Dr. Pinsky says. The best protection from COVID-19 is reached after a booster dose given 2 months after a Janssen (J&J) shot, or 6 months after the second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

As soon as symptoms of COVID-19 appear, even if they’re mild, Dr. Pinsky recommends getting tested to determine if it is a COVID infection. If so, contact your doctor to discuss treatment and monitoring.

Your physician will also be able to determine if you qualify for monoclonal antibody treatment. When administered early in the course of illness, monoclonal antibody treatment can give you a temporary boost to help prevent serious infection from COVID-19 and ease symptoms. Antibodies should be started promptly to have the best effect, preferably as soon as a COVID-19 test comes back positive. The idea is to stop the virus before it becomes a problem.

Kruzel was able to go home on Dec. 13. He has a pulse oximeter at home to monitor his oxygen saturation and oxygen tanks he uses while sleeping, when his oxygen levels tend to dip. He’s started going outside for walks as part of the recovery program and is proud to say that his oxygen levels are in the mid to high 90% range—something most people don’t brag about, but Kruzel says is a big deal for him.

“Edward Hospital stopped COVID in its tracks and made it possible for me to be here for Christmas. That is not an exaggeration,” Kruzel says. “Thank God for that hospital and the incredible people that work there, saving lives every day.”

Learn more about COVID-19.