Surviving COVID-19 is start of a longer journey for family

Amy Swidecki was a gogetting, non-stop, single mom and involved grandma, who volunteered with Boy Scouts for more than 20 years and loved her job as an X-ray technician at a local urgent care.

Then COVID-19 brought life to a halt.

The 49-year-old came home from work Nov. 16 not feeling well and went into Adventist Health Bakersfield on Nov. 19. On Christmas Day, she will have spent 36 days in the hospital, including five days on a ventilator.

Swidecki’s 28-year-old daughter Miranda was hopeful her mother would be discharged to an inpatient rehabilitation hospital any day. But as of Thursday, Workers’ Compensation had yet to authorize the move, Miranda said. And she was told if her mom wasn’t moved by Thursday it likely wouldn’t happen before Christmas.

Amy, a mother of two children in their mid-20s and grandmother to Miranda’s 9-year-old son, is lucky to be alive. But like many COVID-19 patients who suffered severe illness — “long-haulers” as they’re called in the medical community — she has a long road to recovery ahead.

As of last week, she couldn’t hold a spoon or a phone, and could take just three steps with the help of a walker, daughter Miranda said.

She’s also worried about the bills piling up in her absence, Miranda said.

“We don’t know for sure what’s going to be covered and what’s not. I know that concerns my mom right now, too,” Miranda said. Miranda started a GoFundMe account to raise money so her mother won’t face additional stress about paying bills when she is able to come home.

The reality is, though, it’s more than just Amy’s finances that are impacted by her struggle with the virus.

“She helps out everyone in the family,” said Miranda, who is also a single mom and stays at home to care for her son. “When everyone gets low, we all try to help each other.”

Amy’s critical role in the family is recognized by those who’ve known her over the years. Most of Amy’s adult life has been a mission to provide for her children and help others, those close to her said.

“With her as the matriarch of the family, she’s the strong one. She keeps them all together,” said Cindy Basham, the Boy Scouts Southern Sierra Council commissioner, who met Amy 20 years ago when their children were in the Scouts program together.

Watching Amy endure a life-threatening illness over the past six weeks and the impact on her family has been hard, Basham said.

“No family should have to go through this,” she said.