An elderly woman who had not been vaccinated spent over a month on a ventilator and in a coma due to COVID-19 complications and despite being given zero chance of recovery, she woke up on the day doctors planned to turn off her life support.
Doctors had ruled out the possibility of Bettina Lerman, 69, waking up and walking out of the hospital after she had spent more than a month in a coma and over two on a ventilator in Portland, Maine.
Bettina’s son, Andrew Lerman, told the Washington Post that the doctors had told him his mum would never wake up.
They added that as Bettina is a diabetic who had recently undergone a quadruple-bypass surgery, her chances of recovery were non-existent.
Andrew and his siblings accepted the news with a heavy heart and began planning their mum’s funeral – they had even chosen a gravestone.
Before turning off the life support, they decided to return to Bettina’s house in Tavares, Florida, to cancel her lease and donate her possessions.
However, on 29th October, Andrew received a call from the doctor saying the impossible had happened and his mum was awake, reported the Washington Post earlier today, 18th November.
Andrew said: “I was completely beside myself. I dropped the phone because I was going to be terminating life support that day.”
Although she is no longer in the hospital Andrew says that the virus has destroyed her lungs and done serious long-term damage.
Despite the fact that she still needs assistance breathing, doctors described the recovery as a ‘miracle’.
Bettina was not vaccinated when she was infected with COVID-19 in September.
Andrew told WMTW that his mum plans to get vaccinated in the near future and the experience has changed the whole family’s previously hesitant stance towards the vaccine.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Peter Barker, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
The Ananova page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
