‘Toughest guy we know’
81-year old father of Albertus coach recovers from coronavirus after 12-day coma
Mitch Oliver brought his 81-year-old dad Ernie home from Northbridge Health Center in Bridgeport around noon on Memorial Day. The Albertus Magnus basketball coach called to check in on Ernie Tuesday morning.
“He’s like, ‘Where are you? You’ve got to help me with something in the backyard,’ ” Mitch said. “I’m like, ‘You just got home. Lay on the couch.’ But then you think about it, he has been laying on a bed for two months. So it’s a good thing.”
Two hours later, Mitch was at his dad’s Milford home and handed him the phone.
“I feel great today,” Ernie said.
You’d never guess he had just spent 64 days in a hospital and rehabilitation center.
You’d never guess he had been on a ventilator for 12 days in a coma, near death.
“He started at a truck stop when he was 12 or 13 and worked every day since, legit,” Mitch said. “He’s one of those guys. He was still going. He didn’t need to. He’s not going to work anymore. I’m not going to let him.
“When you’re a kid, you hear all the stories, ‘I used to walk to work barefoot in the snow, carry cinder blocks above my head for fun.’ You know what I mean? He’s a workhorse.”
When Ernie got sick in March he was still running the Berkshire Energy Depot, the truck stop right off Exit 8 on I-91 in New Haven. If the arthritis in his right
knee wasn’t kicking up, he said he’d still be playing softball.
Ernie Oliver, born and raised in Milford, beat COVID-19. Beat it by 20. Mercy-ruled it.
“Toughest guy we know,” Mitch said.
He needed all of that toughness.
Ernie rarely gets sick, so when he started showing symptoms on March 23 it was an alert to the family. Knowing Ernie, Mitch said, he probably waited five days to tell anybody.
“I had to fight him a little bit to convince him to let me pick him up and get a test,” Mitch said.
Mobile testing had only started at that point. Ernie got permission from his primary physician. He was swabbed. At that point, it was five to seven days for results. That day, Mitch’s cousin Sheri Filanowski, a nurse, met Ernie in the driveway. She checked his vitals.
“He wasn’t looking good,” Mitch said. “We decided we had to get him to the hospital. We called him an ambulance, this is like March 30, and they took him around the corner to Milford Hospital.”
Ernie was tested again, this time the rapid-response test.
“He had COVID,” Mitch said. “No surprise.”
At that point, Milford Hospital wasn’t accepting
COVID-19 patients, so Ernie was taken to Bridgeport Hospital for a couple of days.
“Now comes the biggest adjustment for anyone who has gone through this,” Mitch said. “There’s no visitors. Extremely limited contact, maybe one phone call, just to talk to a physician assistant, a doctor if you’re lucky, or a nurse. They’ll give you general stuff. At the same time, we’re all learning stuff every day.”
Bridgeport Hospital called. Ernie was doing well enough to be discharged.
“We were surprised, but like, ‘OK, great,’ ” Mitch said. “We figured quarantine, self-care, all that.”
Ernie came out of the hospital.
“He didn’t look good,” Mitch said. “He gets in the car and all he said was, ‘I never felt this weak in my life.’ ”
Oliver practically carried his dad up the stairs into his bedroom. Mitch’s sister Mary-Beth came over and began to care for him. Ernie’s wife Penny had to remain downstairs to stay safe.
The love of Ernie’s life, Penny, was a prom queen at Milford High. Ernie played baseball. They had met their freshmen year. They’ve been married 62 years.
Ernie had only been able to keep down liquids along with an IV. Once he got
home, he started to eat a little. But his oxygen levels started to drop.
“Dropped drastically,” Mitch said. “One day after coming home from Bridgeport, his primary physician FaceTimed with Ernie.”
“She found out what the oxygen levels were and said she was calling 911 from her office,” Ernie said.
An ambulance immediately brought Ernie to Yale New Haven. The family didn’t hear anything for four hours. The call came. Ernie was on a ventilator.
“Honestly, they didn’t make it sound too good,” Mitch said. “Almost like you’ve got to prepare …”
He was in a coma on a ventilator for 12 days.
“All we could do was wait by the phone, with only one person allowed to call,” Mitch said. “You’re lucky to get through once a day. They’re so busy. There’s so much going on.
“I just wanted to get it across that this dude is not a normal 81-year-old. He’s moving. He’s all over the place. He had no real health issues otherwise.”
In the meantime, Penny tested positive for COVID-19. Mary-Beth stayed on one side of her parent’s home to keep Penny company.
“My mom had little or zero symptoms,” Mitch said. “It’s amazing how it affects different people.”
So the family waited. Some days there were detailed explanations. Some days there were only numbers and go to Google to try to get a handle of what’s going on.
“The Yale ICU was unbelievable. Northbridge awesome,” Mitch said. “They’re telling you what they can with 50 more people to update and answering unknown questions at times.
“Sometimes you got to stay away from online a little, because you’re seeing all the negative things about being on a ventilator at his age.”
The call came on Easter. And it was a great surprise and a great blessing. Ernie was being taken off the ventilator.
“The numbers were steady for 12 days, not improving much, but steady,” Mitch said. “He remained in the ICU for five more days. You’ve got delirium so it probably took him twothree days before he could comprehend what was going on.”
“I’d like to tell you more about my experience,” Ernie said. “But I don’t remember a thing until I work up.”
Penny FaceTimed Ernie. “He barely could get a word out, he had a tube down there,” Mitch said. “Only thing you could make out was, ‘Get me out of here. Come pick me up.’ He was trying to tell her where his keys were.”
Ernie moved to a regular room in Yale New Haven. Apple donated a large number of iPads to Yale so families could FaceTime with patients. At that point, Ernie still couldn’t hold the iPad.
One of his roommates for a time was a Yale doctor.
“That hits you,” Mitch said. “It shows you the situation everyone is in with COVID. Healthcare workers they are sacrificing every day.”
Ernie was taken for rehabilitation at Northbridge for 27 more days. In all, he was gone from home for 64. Ernie said his weight dropped from 195 to 164 at one point, “took all my muscle.”
“He literally has had to learn to walk again,” Mitch said.
“Yale. Everyone one was great,” Ernie said. “Northbridge. Terrific. When I left (Monday), usually they take you out in a wheelchair, I was able to use the walker to walk out. That really felt good.”
He can take some steps on his own. He has made a ton of progress.
“One, he’s lucky to be alive,” Mitch said. “Two, he didn’t have excessive delirium or paralysis and loss of motor skills. He’s very lucky.”
So here was Ernie Oliver back home on Memorial Day. The immediate family was hanging out around his driveway. He expected the welcome.
Around the corner, out of sight, there were 75 cars and trucks. Ernie didn’t expect a parade.
“It took him by surprise,” Mitch said. “It hit him hard. He was emotional.”
“The parade, oh, my God,” Ernie said. “One of my friends owns Laydon Construction. He had all his trucks with signs, honking their horns. It was unbelievable. I didn’t know I had this many friends.”
Ernie joked everyone showed up except the referees. He is known to state his opinion at games. That trait runs in the family. Actually, Mitch said, a number of officials did call with wellwishes.
“I get there early a lot, so I get to know them pretty good,” Ernie said. “I joke around with them.”
Mitch has won seven GNAC titles at Albertus Magnus. He’s one of the most successful Division III coaches around. Dad is a superfan. He always sits in the same spot. He is rarely quiet.
“The first championship we won in 2010, we go to William Paterson (in Wayne N.J.),” Mitch said. “We had a bus for students. This guy rents a coach himself for our family and friends. Probably had a bartender, too.”
Byron Reaves hit a halfcourt shot at the buzzer for the Falcons’ first NCAA Tournament win.
“It was crazy,” Mitch said. “Yeah, my dad’s a diehard fan”
Ernie’s a diehard all right.