Hospital’s first critical COVID-19 patient gives a concert for the people who saved him
LONGMONT» In spring 2020, resident Jacob Larson was the first and most critically ill COVID-19 patient at Uchealth Longs Peak Hospital. On Wednesday, he held a concert to give back to the community that helped him recover.
“To have the opportunity to return and see all of the Uchealth Longs Peak medical staff who helped me get better will hopefully be healing as well as a full-circle experience for everyone involved,” Larson said. “I also hope it encourages the nurses and doctors to see that the work they have done and continue to do is not in vain.”
Larson was the hospital’s youngest COVID-19 patient at the start of the pandemic.
“On April 10, 2020, then-21-year-old Jacob Larson proudly rang a bell as he was wheeled out of his hospital room, down the hallway and through the front lobby of Uchealth Longs Peak Hospital,” Uchealth spokeswoman Kelly Tracer said. “Hospital workers lined the stairwell and walls to cheer for him as he headed toward the door where his parents stood waiting to take him home.”
Three weeks prior, the now 23-year-old jazz singer entered the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms, such as the inability to breathe and severe stomach pains, and was in a state of confusion. Larson spent 20 days in the ICU and 13 days on a ventilator. On Wednesday, he performed at Uchealth Longs Peak Hospital Grill Day, a staff appreciation event held three to four times a year.
“When I went into the hospital, we were living life ‘normal’ and sort of learning about this virus — but by the time I was discharged (Gov. Jared) Polis had joined other states in lockdowns — so adjusting to a ‘new normal’ while still healing physically and emotionally was difficult,” Larson said.
Larson said that although he is 100% physically healthy with no long-term physical effects, he is still seeing a counselor for the emotional toll COVID-19 had on him.
Uchealth Longs Peak Dr. Aiman Rauf, one of Larson’s attending doctors, said the seriousness of the virus hit her when Larson was her patient in the ICU. “He was the same age as my little sister, and it was at that point I knew there wasn’t anything good about this virus,” Rauf said.
“Jacob’s case, I think, was terrifying for us all because it was the worst case, the first case we had in our critical ICU of a very young, healthy man,” Rauf explained. “To see this young man back up and off of life support — living his best life and enjoying life makes the dark days well worth it.”
Larson, who usually performs with his 10-piece band, sang only with a piano accompaniment Wednesday to be conscious of the ongoing pandemic concerns.
“The gratitude he has shown since he has been discharged is amazing and kind of validates the sacrifices we have made as health care workers,” said Fernando Mijares, Longs Peak’s associate nurse manager of the medical-surgical unit. “Him performing and him singing after his lungs were so compromised, that is just amazing — it’s one of the most wonderful feelings you can have as a health care worker.”
Larson wants his story to “provide hope for caregivers everywhere as well as others facing this disease as well as their loved ones.” He also encourages anyone who is still on the fence to get a vaccination.