The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Patient on road to recuperation
Two beers and a ham and cheese sandwich.
Those, and the company of his family, are Rick Cameron’s first requests for when he’s released from the hospital after a long battle with COVID-19.
Cameron was admitted to the intensive care unit at Colchester East Hants Health Centre in Truro, where he tested positive for the virus, on March 19.
The next day, Cameron, 69, was put on a ventilator.
He would stay on it until April 23.
“His time in ICU was a bit of a rollercoaster,” Kelly Marshall, Cameron’s daughter, said in a phone interview.
“There were times, especially the day before they proned him, that we were terrified because we thought we could lose him.”
But on April 11, Cameron opened his eyes for the first time since being admitted.
“From there, things started to improve. He went on to get a tracheotomy to being fully awake and just on oxygen, speaking his first words and having the tracheotomy taken out,” Marshall said.
On April 26, Cameron’s COVID-19 test came back negative for the first time in more than a month.
After a second negative test on the 28th, the doctors declared him a recovered patient.
The next day, Cameron was transferred to the Aberdeen Hospital in New Glasgow, closer to his family in Stellarton.
Cameron, one of the first people to test positive in Nova Scotia, also didn’t know anything about the virus that took over his body for the past month.
“He called my mom one day and asked her if people died from this. He really had no idea at all,” Marshall said.
While Cameron, the first COVID-19 patient to be admitted into and discharged from the ICU in Nova Scotia, is on his road to recovery, it will be no small feat.
“He literally had no muscle left in him and his vocal cords were so weak, it was extremely hard to make out what he was saying,” Marshall said, adding he had a bit of ICU delirium.
But on Tuesday, Marshall, joined by her mom and brother, had her first call with Cameron where “he was just like my dad.”
“The whole time, he had his arm up behind his head, leaning back on the bed and he was just asking about the kids and our days,” she said.
“Then he showed us how he can lift his body up, which he was pretty proud of, because like a week ago he couldn’t even lift his head off
his pillow.”
Cameron will remain in the hospital as he continues with
his rehabilitation, which doctors say could take up to six months.
With COVID-19 keeping visitors out of the hospital, Marshall said her family’s looking forward to being reunited.
“The only thing he’s expressed so far is he wants to sit down with us, so he’s looking forward to being able to actually hug his family, have a few laughs and a beer, apparently,” she said with a laugh.
“That was his first request: I want two beer and a ham and cheese sandwich.”
He called my mom one day and asked her if people died from this. He really had no idea at all.
Kelly Marshall
Daughter of Rick Cameron