Florida man leaves Conn. hospital after COVID treatment
WALLINGFORD — Robby Walker, a Florida COVID-19 patient who was airlifted to St. Francis Hospital in Hartford for a lifesaving treatment after a doctor saw his wife’s plea for help on CNN, was released from a rehabilitation facility on Wednesday.
To applause and cheers from health care workers and visitors, the father of six was pushed out of an elevator in a wheelchair and out the door at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare, where he had been recuperating from his bout with the disease.
Following a news conference, he hugged supporters and stood to thank them. The moment fulfilled a promise by Dr. Megan Panico, a pulmonologist at Gaylord, who predicted Walker would “be one of our COVID patients that walks out the door.”
“When we left Florida we were told he was not going to even survive the trip, and did I know what I was up against,” said Susan Walker, Robby’s wife who worked to have him brought to Connecticut to receive treatment. “I just put faith in the Lord that he would put us where we needed to be.”
“I just didn’t know what I was going to do if I lost him,” Susan Walker said. The couple lost a daughter to a brain aneurysm a few years ago, she said, and were still recovering from that loss. “He’s my rock and I really just was desperate,” she said.
“It’s beyond miraculous — she’s my hero” Robby Walker told reporters gathered outside the facility, gesturing at his wife.
He was unvaccinated when he fell ill over the summer, something he said was due to his lack of education about the vaccine. “I didn’t realize it was a shot that had been developed for years, I thought it had been developed in a year,” he said. “My answer now would be absolutely get it.”
“Robby’s just an amazing person; so is Susan ... they don’t give up,” said Alexandra Maneen, Robby’s occupational therapist at Gaylord. “From Day 1 Robby was motivated. He was short of breath and his heart rate went racing but he was ready to get going.” She called him an “inspiration for all those who are going through this.”
The family’s ordeal began in early July, when Robby Walker tested positive for COVID-19, according to his wife. He had not been vaccinated against the disease.
Walker’s symptoms worsened, and on July 18 he was admitted to an emergency room after an X-ray found pneumonia in both his lungs. Days later, he called his wife to tell her he had agreed to be placed on a ventilator — a procedure that can sometimes be the last time families are able to talk to COVID-19 patients before they succumb to the disease.
Soon after, doctors told Susan Walker her husband would not survive. Galvanizing her family, Susan began searching for a hospital with an ECMO bed that could take Walker, after a lung transplant appeared impossible.
The device, an extra corporeal membrane oxygenation machine, essentially acts as an artificial heart by pumping blood out of the body through a tube, oxygenating it, and then returning the blood to the patient through another line. It’s a treatment that’s proven effective for patients with severe COVID-19.
But the Walkers weren’t the only people looking for an ECMO bed, as cases surged in the U.S., particularly in the South thanks to the delta variant. Susan Walker said the family searched throughout Florida and in nearby states for a hospital with an ECMO machine that would accept Robby. But each time, the family was told he didn’t qualify because of his medical history, including his age and how long he had been intubated, she said.
In early August, Susan went on CNN and pleaded for a hospital with an ECMO machine to take her husband in. By chance, that interview was seen by Dr. Gallagher, head of cardiothoracic surgery at Trinity Health of New England, who spotted the story while browsing Facebook.
Gallagher and Angela, the perfusionist, were able to get in touch with the family through a contact in Florida. They then set about transferring Robby Walker to St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, which had an open ECMO machine. The ordeal involved taking him north by a medical flight, with the family traveling by car up to Connecticut.
By early September, Robby Walker had recovered enough to be taken off the ECMO machine. Later that month he was transferred to Gaylord, where he continued his recovery.
“Moving forward we’re just going to enjoy every moment as it comes,” Susan Walker said. “We’re just going to slow our clock down.”