Tennessee GOP legislator says he may be put on ventilator
Tennessee state Rep. David Byrd says barring a “miracle,” he may soon be placed on a ventilator due to COVID-19.
The Waynesboro Republican, who posted on Facebook Thursday to ask friends for prayers, was hospitalized over the weekend with pneumonia after testing positive for the coronavirus.
He was flown by helicopter from Wayne County Hospital to St. Thomas in Nashville, where he remains.
“I really need a miracle today!!” Byrd wrote Thursday. “My doctor said if my oxygen level doesn’t improve then he has no choice but to put me on a ventilator. So please pray that God will breathe His healing spirit into my lungs!!”
Byrd, 63, was among the nearly 70 House Republicans in attendance at a caucus meeting held in the House chamber Nov. 24, a week-and-ahalf before he was hospitalized with the virus.
He could be seen at one point on the House floor not wearing a mask.
Days before that, he hosted a dinner for dozens of fellow caucus members at a restaurant in his district to kick off a multi-night House Republican retreat.
Several members from the House and Senate have contracted coronavirus in recent months. Byrd is at least the second House Republican to be hospitalized with the virus.
Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, reported in August that he was placed in the intensive care unit for a critical case of COVID-19.
Byrd and Carter in June voted in support of a House resolution stating that “mainstream media has sensationalized the reporting on COVID-19 in the service of political agendas.”
Byrd, a former teacher and principal, in 2018 was accused by three former students of sexually assaulting them in the 1980s when he coached their girls basketball team at Wayne County High School.
He never publicly denied the allegations, but said he has done nothing wrong while in office.