‘ Armor of God’
Pastor says he recovered from COVID with faith and prayers from his flock
BETHEL — John Esposito walks 2 miles on the high school track every day after he gets home from working at Ring’s End lumberyard in Wilton. It’s a feat he wouldn’t have been able to accomplish just a few months ago. In late March, he was placed on a ventilator at Danbury Hospital in a medically induced coma as he fought to recover from the coronavirus. Ten days later, he awoke and began to heal, regaining his voice and relearning to drink, eat and even walk.
Esposito, who is also the pastor at Gaylordsville United Methodist Church, said the experience has showed him to slow down and that God has more plans in store for him.
“I’m thankful He gave me a second chance,” Esposito said. “We just make the best out of every day.”
He said people have asked if this experience made him angry with God, but Esposito responded he had a sense of peace throughout the entire ordeal.
“I’m feeling great,” he said. “Every day is a new adventure.”
He said he’ll have a stretch of good days, but then might have trouble walking. His short- term memory is also not what it was, and his wife, Tammy, will text him reminders throughout the day. His said his hands feel sticky at times, and his skin fluctuates from feeling smooth to rough as sandpaper.
Esposito doesn’t know how he contracted COVID- 19, but suspects it might have been at work. He and his family had been careful — washing their hands, using hand sanitizer, changing and washing the clothes they had worn out of the house.
“Everyone thinks it won’t happen to them,” he said. “No one is safe from this. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you live.”
He originally thought it was just allergies from the spring pollen. His eyes were itchy, he was tired and was having some trouble breathing. He took a few days off to recharge, but awoke on March 27 unable to breathe.
“My wife called 911 and an ambulance came, and that’s when my journey began,” he said.
He was given medications but the next morning, doctors said they weren’t working and he would have to go on a ventilator for eight to 12 days. When they didn’t respond when asked what would happen if he exceeded 12 days, Esposito said he knew he had to pray harder.
“I’m thinking, I’m 59, so right off the bat my age is against me,” Esposito said, adding he knew the statistics of those who survived the coronavirus once going on a ventilator.
Esposito quickly called his wife and the couple discussed his wishes if he didn’t make it. They had discussed death before, but never exact wishes because it seemed so far off, he said.
“I didn’t want to die but I wasn’t scared because I knew what happens after,” he said. “I was either going home to my family or I was going home to the Lord.”
He spent 10 days on the ventilator in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit. Esposito said he remembers coming out of sedation and hearing a nurse and doctor in his room telling him they were going to take him off the ventilator, but if he didn’t breathe on his own in 30 seconds, he would have to go back on.
It went well, and a day later he was moved out of the ICU to a regular hospital room for a week before going to Laurel Hill Health Care Center in Ridgefield for three weeks.
The three women he worked with there pushed and guided him through exercises to prepare him to return to his Bethel home, which he was able to do at the end of April. The former Marine wanted to go the extra step, but he said the nurses urged him to take it slow.
At first, Esposito said his heart would accelerate just brushing his teeth, but he was eventually able to walk up and down flights of stairs, dress himself, tie his shoes.
Walking again, he said, was the hardest part.
“I thought I could just shoot out of bed and walk across the room,” he said, but that wasn’t the case.
Esposito no longer has to do special exercises as part of his rehab and estimates he’s back to 90 percent. He said his doctor believes he’ll be at 100 percent eventually, but isn’t sure how long that will take. The pastor has been lifting weights at home to keep his muscles strong and plans on returning to the gym on Monday.
He returned to his congregation — virtually — about a month and a half ago and to work at the lumberyard about three weeks ago.
Esposito said it felt good to see and speak with his congregation, who prayed nonstop for him while he was sick. Some members who live behind the church rang the bell nightly in support of him.
Esposito said he’s touched by the support, which he said was like his “armor of God” to keep him safe.
“My phone was blowing up,” he said. “It took me three days to get caught up with all of the prayers and well wishes.”
One of his friends who preaches in Norwalk told him that people on five continents were praying for him.
“I can’t fathom it,” he said.