Eau Claire hospital staff hold coat drive for woman recovering from COVID-19

Dec. 8—EAU CLAIRE — Mary Stanley liked the idea of holding a coat drive in Eau Claire this winter.

Instead of sitting in the back of the closet, unused or outgrown winter coats could go to people who needed them, she thought.

Just a couple weeks after Stanley made a comment about her idea to her health care team at Marshfield Medical Center-Eau Claire, they made it a reality.

Stanley, of Eau Claire, has been recovering for the past year from a severe bout of COVID-19. Fighting exhaustion, anxiety and brain fog debilitating enough that she couldn't return to her job, Stanley underwent months of testing before she was able to join the cardiopulmonary rehabilitation program at Marshfield Medical Center-Eau Claire in late October. There, she hoped to get her old strength back.

When Stanley began telling exercise specialist Scott Miller that the hospital should consider holding a coat drive, Miller took her at her word.

"I kept feeling like that needed to happen," Stanley said. "Every time I came in I'd bug Scott about it."

Miller and the cardiopulmonary rehab team at the hospital, who work to help patients with lung and heart conditions regain or build strength, quickly organized a local coat drive. Their efforts garnered more than 100 donations of jackets and coats the week before Thanksgiving.

They donated the outerwear to King's Closet, a free clothing organization in downtown Eau Claire.

"I thought to just keep it simple, collect (the coats at the hospital), starting with staff and patients from cardiopulmonary rehab," Miller said. "All of a sudden we had people dropping off garbage bags' worth of coats."

A 'glimmer of hope' during long-haul COVID

Stanley began to feel sick while visiting family over Thanksgiving in November 2020.

"I was so cold. I didn't think I'd ever get warm again," she recalled.

On Dec. 1 she tested positive for COVID-19. The first and second weeks of her illness she spent in bed, weak and feeling ill. In the third week after her diagnosis, she felt worse; a nurse evaluated Stanley via phone call and told her to go to a hospital right away.

At Marshfield Medical Center-Eau Claire, a CT scan showed blood clots in Stanley's lungs, along with COVID-19 pneumonia.

After a week in the hospital's COVID-19 unit on antibiotics, Stanley was discharged on Dec. 20, 2020. Four days later, on Christmas Eve, she once again couldn't catch her breath and was readmitted to the hospital.

An X-ray found that she still had pneumonia. Her second hospital stay lasted almost another week.

"This time I was a lot weaker," Stanley said. "Every time I got up I was using a walker."

The hospital discharged her with a walker; she'd begun blood thinner medication for her blood clots, which made the prospect of a fall even more dangerous, she said.

In February and March, Stanley tried to return to work — where she helps connect veterans with health care after they leave military service — but she couldn't concentrate and still had debilitating exhaustion. After a few weeks she had to stop working again.

Some people who recover from COVID-19 have been seen to suffer from a wide range of lingering health problems for months. Some organizations have begun to refer to the condition as long-haul COVID or post-COVID syndrome. It can even affect people who didn't become seriously ill from their bout of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

"It just feels like it's two steps forward, ten steps back," Stanley said.

Stanley's doctors told her that she had interstitial fibrosis, or scarring in her lungs. It was an intimidating diagnosis, Stanley said, and for much of 2021 she underwent dozens of tests and scans.

Her short-term disability insurance benefit was expiring and she wasn't making any income. Stanley didn't want to retire, but she wasn't sure she could go back to work while still suffering from extreme fatigue, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness and brain fog.

"It's so depressing to be able to go from working full time, doing your own grocery shopping, doing your laundry, to 'I have to get out of the shower and sit down and rest before I can finish taking the shower because I'm so weak,' " Stanley said. "It's hard to wrap your mind around it."

But after Stanley started cardiopulmonary rehab at the hospital this fall, her exhaustion and strength began to improve. Miller told her that her condition could be managed as long as she exercised and worked to keep her lungs strong.

For Stanley, it was "a little glimmer of hope."

Patients who enter Marshfield Medical Center's cardiopulmonary rehab program are first assessed with a walking test, Miller said. Staff then help them gain strength from that baseline.

"I almost have to rein her in at times," Miller said of Stanley. "You want to (see) that, where they're eager to get better again. She's definitely that case."

Giving back

It was shortly after Stanley suggested to Miller the hospital organize a coat drive that Marshfield Medical Center staffers surprised her with their efforts.

"Scott said, 'You're not going to believe this,' " Stanley said, remembering arriving at the hospital one day for a rehab session. "I go in there and there's huge bags full of coats. I got goosebumps. I was so happy."

Miller, the cardiopulmonary rehab staff, workers from other departments and other patients gathered more than 100 donations of coats, jackets and boots.

"I'd like to do it next year," Miller said. " ... I think it's very easy to forget when we have everything, all the chaos going on in our lives, that someone is just trying to figure out, 'How do I get a coat?' It's easy to take that stuff for granted."

Stanley's health has improved, especially after starting her rehab. Daily life is still overwhelming, she said, but she's seen a lot of improvement after working to regain her strength.

"Before I came into the rehab (program), I just had the sense that it was kind of hopeless," Stanley said. "It is what it is, and there's nothing I can do about it ... I'm not back to where I was, but mentally I feel much better."

She hopes even more recovery is on the way, adding, "I can't wait to get on the other side of this."