"I don't believe in giving up"

Feb. 13—For more than 20 years, Steve Stewart protected thousands in cities and counties across central Georgia as a deputy sheriff and police officer.

He's encountered just about every situation imaginable, but nothing he's encountered in his law enforcement career has ever gotten to him like COVID-19.

The disease nearly took his life.

Stewart, a field training officer with the Navicent Health Police Department in Macon for the past several years, worked various shifts at Navicent Health's three area hospitals during the outbreak of the respiratory disease that hit central Georgia in mid-March 2020.

He followed all of the protocols set in place by officials at Navicent Health during the early weeks of the global pandemic.

"I wore a mask and gloves and did everything I could possibly do to keep from getting COVID-19," recalled Stewart during a recent telephone interview with The Union-Recorder. "I didn't want it because I had seen so many people getting very sick with it coming into our hospitals. I knew it was some real bad stuff."

The Baldwin County resident remembers precisely when he began feeling sick.

The date was Sept. 9, 2020.

The day before, Stewart went to work as scheduled.

"I felt fine most of the day, but about two hours before I was to get off, I started getting a dry cough, like I had something in my throat," said the 53-year-old Stewart.

He said he remembered feeling off and just not himself.

"I wasn't feeling so great," Stewart said.

At the time, he didn't think a whole lot about it.

The next morning, things were much different.

"I woke up with a fever and feeling like someone had run over me," Stewart said.

It all happened within just a few hours.

Stewart said he went from being pretty healthy to being sick within a relatively short period.

The disease has stripped him of what he loved so much — serving and protecting others as a police officer.

It's a job he has always taken seriously.

"I've always loved my job in law enforcement," Stewart said.

And now the disease has stripped him of that ability to help others.

"Literally, one day I am a healthy cop at 53 years old, living life, and the next day, I'm uncertain whether I'm going to live or die after testing positive for COVID-19," Stewart said.

Before he underwent testing, he was told by the medical staff at Navicent Health Baldwin that he had the symptoms of COVID-19.

"They immediately starting treating me a Z-pak and steroids — all standard things to start with," Stewart said.

While taking the medication, his oxygen level was also closely monitored.

"So, I fought it for a few days," Stewart said. "That was on a Tuesday and the following Tuesday, a week later, Sept, 15, is when I went back to the hospital. I got where I couldn't breathe."

He got his wife to drive him to the emergency department (ED) of the local hospital.

"The doctor immediately admitted me right away to ICU," Stewart said. "And that was the start of 21 days of not being able to see my wife because I was in isolation due to COVID."

Even though it was suggested by his doctor, he would not allow the medical staff to intubate him, place him on a ventilator.

"And I really think that's what saved my life, honestly," Stewart said. "That and of course, the good Lord looking watching over me."

While at Navicent Health Baldwin, his oxygen dropped dramatically, and his condition deteriorated.

"I was getting worse and worse," Stewart said.

And he knew it.

The next day, he was told by the doctor that there was nothing more they could do for him at the local hospital.

"The doctor told me, we need to fly you to either Augusta or Atlanta," Stewart said.

He said he ended up at The Medical Center Atrium Health Navicent in Macon.

"I spent a total of 17 days there in ICU, and another 12 days as a patient there in the COVID unit," Stewart said.

He remembers little of the procedures that he underwent while in ICU.

"I just remember getting lots of needles and IVs," Stewart said. "My stomach, from one side to the other where they were giving me shots, was black and blue."

During his nearly month-long stay in the hospital, Stewart lost 30 pounds.

"Through the grace of God and great care from the medical team, I was able to survive," Stewart said.

He now sees a pulmonary specialist in Macon.

"I'm convinced that they have helped save my life," Stewart said.

He recently received news that he may need a dual lung transplant.

Even with such bleak news, Stewart said he is determined to somehow continue living out his life as best he can because he knows God has something more in store for him.

Stewart said he plans to fight COVID-19 with everything in him.

"I don't believe in giving up."

He and his wife are members of Northridge Christian Church in Milledgeville.

Before coming to working for the Navicent Health Police Department, he worked as a road patrol lieutenant and field training officer with the Greensboro Police Department in Greensboro. He was there for seven years.

Before his job in the Greene County city, Stewart worked as a road patrol sergeant with the Thomson Police Department for about a year. Before his job in McDuffie County, Stewart worked as road patrol corporal and shift supervisor/field training officer with the Greene County Sheriff's Office.

Stewart began his law enforcement career in 2000 with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office in Eatonton. He later was promoted to road patrol deputy where he worked until 2007.

"I started off as a jailer," Stewart said. "I worked for Sheriff Howard Sills and Chief Deputy Russell Blenk. And now my youngest son, Jason, works for them as a jailer at the Putnam County Jail."

Stewart said Jason wants to follow in his dad's footsteps and eventually go to the police academy to become a road patrol deputy sheriff.

Stewart's other son, Brian, works in management with GEICO in Macon, while his wife, Teri, works as a sales representative for The Union-Recorder.

During his law enforcement career, Stewart estimates that he helped at least 100 officers learn invaluable lessons as their field training officer.

"That was one-on-one type training," Stewart said.

He served as an adjunct instructor at the Georgia Department of Public Training Center for several years.

"I actually helped teach mandate training," Stewart said.

Going forward, Stewart said he plans to continue following up with his doctor and doing what he advises.

He said he will never give up without waging the best fight possible against an invisible enemy in COVID-19.

"I'm stubborn."