Gillmer said that he heard his wife's voice even though he was in a coma and felt safe. "I swear I heard her voice, and by the time she left, I was stable."
Fairytales have some truth in them. Just like Snow White needed true love's kiss to wake up from deep slumber, a South Carolina man woke up from a coma after hearing his beloved wife's voice.
The 43-year-old man, Don Gillmer, a drummer by profession, first tested positive for COVID-19 in early July. A few days later, he started showing symptoms, NBC affiliate WYFF reported. He developed a cough and had difficulty sleeping. When his health deteriorated, he packed his things and went to Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital in Charleston.
"[I] knew it was time to go to the hospital," he told WYFF. The drummer from Greenville ended up staying there for more than two months, where he had to undergo different treatments. He fought hard to keep on living.
"I received convalescent plasma twice, remdesivir, nothing was working," he told WYFF. "Nothing was helping me recover, so I’ll never really forget when they came in with papers I needed to sign to go on a ventilator. That scared me."
About a month later, his temperature went up to 104 degrees, which is when the doctors decided to put him in a medically induced coma, as per WSAZ. His wife, Lacy, and his dad rushed to his side. They were able to see him only after he was put in a coma. She was informed that his life depended on how he felt that night. "If he makes it through tonight it’ll be good, but we really just don’t know that he will," the doctors told her, as per WYFF.
The miracle happened after she sat next to her husband and talked to him. "I just told him that he was doing great, that they were taking such good care of him, he was in amazing hands," she told WYFF.
The 43-year-old says that he heard his wife's voice even though he was in a coma, and felt safe. "I swear I heard her voice, and by the time she left, I was stable," Gillmer said. "She’s my angel. She’s the reason I’m here."
The drummer has a newfound appreciation for his wife. "I think about her drive to the hospital the night they told her that I may not make it," he said. "I can’t imagine that, so I tell her often I don’t know that I could have been as strong as her."
He pulled through, but it wasn't the end, because there was a lot more he had to undergo before he could return home. "I had a (tracheostomy) that they put in to help, so I couldn’t talk," said Gillmer. "The left side of my body wasn’t really functioning. So I wondered, what is going on?"
He said that he has a condition called wrist drop in his left hand and can't feel his fingers anymore. He went through weeks of physiotherapy and had to relearn how to walk. Eventually, he was discharged on September 11, 2020. He still has to go for physical therapy twice a week.
He stayed in the hospital for around 63 days and a friend has set up a GoFundMe page so he could raise money for his medical expenses. You can donate here.
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