A long road to recovery
2 men born decades apart still living with effects of COVID-19
COVID-19 hit Glenn Merritt III, 25, of New Haven and Marty Ganter, 81, of West Haven like a ton of bricks, each requiring intubation and lengthy rehabilitation, but they are experiencing recovery very differently, with Ganter having made great strides while the younger Merritt is progressing slowly.
Merritt, who weighed 460 pounds when he started the COVID journey that brought him close to death, now is down to 324 pounds but still struggles to breathe, has trouble walking, requires dialysis, is in constant pain and struggles physically with total selfcare. He’s on oxygen at night and during activity.
“It’s just hard, life itself is hard,” Merritt, now 26, said.
Ganter, who before COVID walked five miles and biked daily, played basketball and sang every Saturday night at Offshore Restaurant in West Haven, couldn’t walk when he was taken off the ventilator. Ganter, a doo-wop artist and singer since age 17 who still performed, also was worried about his regaining his singing voice.
Today, despite having a minor heart attack and blood clot after his release from Gaylord Specialty Healthcare in Wallingford in late July 2020, Ganter, now 83, is walking with a cane instead of a walker and again is belting out the oldies with friends at Offshore Restaurant. But he only performs if there’s sanitizer and a microphone cover because he believes sharing a microphone is how he caught COVID.
“My voice is 99 percent back. Thank God because I really enjoy singing,” an upbeat Ganter said. “I’m fortunate with all the stuff I’ve gone through to be able to get up and dress myself. Considering what I see and hear from other people who have had COVID, I’m pretty thankful for what I have.”
Shortly after his release, Ganter got his wish to walk his only child, Sheri, down the aisle at Biagetti’s restaurant — even if slowly with a walker — and was able to sing at the wedding, acknowledging with a chuckle it wasn’t his best performance ever.
“It was great, satisfying,” he said of being able to do that. He credits his daughter, Sheri Ganter Jaser, his wife, Linda, and caregiver Lulu with making his recovery possible.
Nearly two years later, Ganter says, “Here I am still upright.” He is also driving again. Ganter said he misses walking his dog, Spence — the problem isn’t walking, but bending over to pick up after Spence.
Merritt, a man of deep faith with a praying family is also thankful, despite his woes, because many others died. He was close to death and doctors suggested giving up the fight, but his family said “no way” and upped the prayers. He contracted COVID a week before his age group was eligible for the vaccine.
“It’s definitely hard, but a lot of people didn’t make it. I’m just thankful I’m one of the ones that did,” he said. “I just think there’s a purpose for me,” which he said may be to “inspire” others, and not just about COVID, but other matters, as well.
Merritt, a young man popular in the community who won the hearts of staff at Gaylord, was in an online master’s degree program in criminal justice when he got COVID and hasn’t been able to resume yet because his hands are weak.
The six-foot, one-inch Merritt said he wants to lose more weight, his goal being 270 pounds. While he’s maintaining his weight loss, he’s having a hard time losing more, as the food is different at home, he said.
Merritt said he’s “progressing” in all areas, but may face a kidney transplant in the future. In addition to continuing physical therapy, he’s also receiving psychological help because he got so used to the hospital, he said.
He spent three months at Gaylord, after being hospitalized elsewhere, he said.
“I wasn’t feeling right. It’s kind of weird I guess, but I was more comfortable being there than I was at home,” Merritt said. “Home doesn’t feel like home anymore — not the way the hospital does.”
Merritt, who lived independently before COVID, now lives with his father and has a lot of help, he said, from his parents as well as his grandmother in Hamden.
He stays optimistic about recovery because doctors have told him, “since I’m so young my body heals faster,” he said.
“I’m real hopeful. I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to where I want to be. But I’m hopeful I’ll bring life back to where I used to be,” Merritt said.