A father of five children in Oklahoma was in need of a lung and heart transplant after fighting for his life in the ICU for nearly four months after contracting COVID-19.
According to KFOR, 47-year-old Brian Carnes, his wife Rebecca and their five daughters all tested positive for the virus in March. Within a week of falling ill, Brian lived in the intensive care unit of the INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City.
“His lungs are failing and oxygenation cannot be maintained,” said Rebecca, a nurse practitioner.
COVID-19 prevented Brian from expanding his lungs and caused right-sided heart failure. He spends most of his time on a ventilator. In order to survive without a ventilator, he needs a lung and heart transplant.
“I just want a chance,” Brian told KFOR from his hospital bed.
According to Rebekah, he has been undergoing a treatment called ECMO, in which blood is drawn from the human body, oxygenated and released back into the body. The goal is to bypass the lungs and help the patient breathe, but Rebekah said that many times she was afraid of the worst.
“In this process, there are several times we will definitely lose him,” Rebecca said. “Sometimes it’s horrible.”
Although both Brian and Rebecca work in the healthcare field, neither of them has been vaccinated. Rebekah shared that they don’t think vaccinations are necessary because they mainly visit via TV and follow other guidelines, such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.
Now, Rebekah says that getting a vaccine is “absolutely our topic.”
“We still don’t know where it came from,” she said. “We don’t know how he got sick.”
With the help of Valve, Brian told KFOR, “I don’t want to give up.” He is receiving physical therapy and trying to stand up, but the transplant operation should make a big difference.
“He just wants a chance,” Rebecca said.
Other families across the United States have been affected by COVID-19 in a similar way, with one or more family members hospitalized after contracting the virus.
A couple in Texas, They were opposed to vaccines to a large extent and were eventually sent to the ICU after falling ill. They are now desperate for their four children to be vaccinated.
“My 42-year-old cousin does not believe in vaccines,” the lady’s cousin wrote in a recent article. Facebook postal. “Now, she and her husband are in the vent of the ICU, their 4 children are at home, and their 4 children are all at home. The last thing she said is to make sure her child is vaccinated.”
Weekly newspaper Contact the Oklahoma Department of Health for further comments, but has not received a response.
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