Leamington man survived paralysis, seizure and six weeks in hospital to defeat COVID-19
Victor Winter also spent approximately three weeks on a ventilator
Victor Winter says he remembers dreams of drowning underwater, but not much else from the time before and after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
The 66-year-old Leamington resident — a former educator and pastor — said he first began to feel symptoms of what would eventually be diagnosed as COVID-19 on March 13.
At the time, he simply thought he had developed a flu, as Windsor-Essex had yet to confirm even its first patient with coronavirus.
"At that point, COVID-19 was in China," Winter said. "We knew it was coming, no idea it was here."
Over the next few days, Winter went back and forth between noticing his symptoms worsen and feeling like he was improving.
By Friday, March 20, however, Winter's wife Marilyn decided to call an ambulance, and he was quickly taken to hospital in Leamington.
Though Winter was able to walk into the ambulance and even speak with paramedics, he said he has no recollection of the week before he was taken to hospital.
"I have checked my emails, texts, my computer — I continued to write letters and function, but I have no memory of this," he said.
Throughout his entire first week with COVID-19, Winter said he exhibited almost no fever and no cough.
... I continued to write letters and function, but I have no memory of this.- Victor Winter
"[This] is why this is such a sneaky and deadly disease," he said. "It's not identifiable."
After spending roughly 12 hours in hospital in Leamington, Winter was intubated and taken to Windsor Regional Hospital, where he was almost immediately placed on a ventilator.
"Of course, I'm saying all of this because it's reported to me," Winter said. "I [was] unconscious."
On Friday, March 27, almost one week after hospital staff connected Winter to a ventilator, he said his heart began to fail.
"You should understand, the doctors with whom I talked later, they are not making this up as they go along, but they are working with a disease with which they are unfamiliar," Winter said. "They're researching, they're checking with colleagues around the world."
In an effort to redirect Winter's body to focus on combating COVID-19, doctors placed Winter on a paralytic, hoping his body would focus on repairing his lungs.
"They kept me alive so my body could do its work," Winter said. "And in so doing this, their hope was … if the body isn't busy shaking and trying to fix other things, maybe it'll concentrate on the lungs. That's how it was explained to me as a layperson."
Marilyn, who spoke with Winter's doctor before he was given the paralytic, said she was told "the likely outcome is death."
"We were mentally trying to prepare for that as much as one is able to prepare for that," she said.
However, roughly 48 hours after Winter was given the paralytic, doctors were eventually able to slowly wean him off the drug.
WATCH | Victor Winter spent six weeks in hospital to defeat COVID-19:
"He was still shaking a lot, but he pulled through," Marilyn said. "From that point on, I guess that just gave his body enough of a break that he could fight it."
Around Friday, April 10 — Good Friday — Winter's doctors decided to remove him from the ventilator to see if his body would be able to function without the breathing apparatus.
Though Marilyn said Winter did better, there were still complications — including a seizure. While Winter was in hospital, Marilyn requested that staff keep an iPad connected to Wi-Fi so she could keep an eye on her husband.
That connection enabled her to spot what later turned out to be a seizure, alerting medical staff and allowing them to quickly take action.
"My assumption would be if it had gone unnoticed, they would have walked in an hour later and gone … something's wrong here and sort of tried to figure it out," Marilyn said. "Whereas the minute I saw it, I called in and said, 'I think he's had a seizure.'"
After roughly four weeks in hospital, Winter was soon able to wake up.
"Of course, you awake to a kind of delirium," he said, explaining that all he remembered from between the time he first began to develop symptoms and the moment he woke up were "false memories … fantasies."
"When I woke up, I had to be told where I was, what had happened to me and the fact that it was late April," he said.
More than two weeks later, on Wednesday, April 29, Winter was discharged from hospital, having twice successfully tested negative for COVID-19.
Still, Winter's road to recovery continued beyond fighting off COVID-19.
I took three steps and I was utterly exhausted.- Victor Winter
"After lying on your back for six weeks, how much more muscle do you think you have left?" he said. "Zero. I could not even roll myself over."
The first time Winter walked after waking up, he said it took three nurses and a walker to support him.
"I took three steps and I was utterly exhausted," he said.
Now, however, after having returned home and continuing his physiotherapy regimen, Winter said he's able to walk confidently on his own.
And despite his time unconscious, he said his mental faculties have remained strong as well.
"Fortunately, my brain was apparently unaffected," Winter said. "There will be some who debate that, but I think I'm still all here. I could have easily lost that."
Winter said he's grateful for his medical staff, as well as his wife, family and faith for helping him throughout his ordeal with coronavirus.
"I've done a lot of crying," he said. "When I left the hospital, the nurses and doctors gathered and they had this wonderful ceremony as they guide you out of the hospital."
"It's very emotional to realize where you've been and how lucky you are."
With files from Jason Viau