For some COVID-19 has caused restrictions to what every day life looks like. For Alliance native Erick Rippe the coronavirus has been a life-changing journey that he has gone through for almost all of 2021.
His COVID-19 experience started when he showed symptoms on Jan. 9 and tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 11. By Jan. 14 he was flown to Scottsbluff and on Jan.15 he was flown to Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver, where he stayed until March 18.
Rippe’s mother Christine said Erick was flown to Porter because hospital staff expected him to need to be put on an ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machine.
Erick was put on the ECMO machine on Jan. 22.
“The choice to put him on ECMO was a week and two days after he was in the hospital. He was vented two days later after he went in on a Thursday,” Christine said.
Christine said his doctor was not sure if ECMO would work for Erick, but it was his “last and only chance.”
When Erick arrived to Porter he was the most critical patient in Covid unit.
“It’s a beast and it is unpredictable. We had every stage in this house from no symptoms, testing positive to the worst of the symptoms, testing positive,” Christine said.
Christine said his prognosis was not good and was told it would be a long road to recovery.
“The scariness of hearing how people react to it is kind of what I didn’t want. But hearing them (the doctors and nurses) what you feel there is a tiny, tiny piece of what Covid will actually do to you,” Christine said. “We got to see some x-rays of his lungs and at worst case scenario, it’s completely white. Like 100 percent white. There was no black. He had what they called glass shards and it was just covered.”
Typically the connection is put through the neck, but Erick was too swollen and the picc line had to be put elsewhere.
In addition to being on the ECMO, Erick also was put on a ventilator to help bring oxygen to his lungs.
According to Christine, at the height of his coronavirus illness, Erick was on 300 percent oxygen between the ECMO and ventilator and was having 4.6 liters of blood removed and put back into his body.
“It’s very unpredictable and it’s real; it’s super real,” Christine said.
Because Erick tested positive for coronavirus, he had to isolate at the hospital away from his family for 21 days after his diagnosis.
“The first two nights were every mother’s nightmare. The things that come out of his mouth. He was going through that delirium. But then I walked in one morning and he realized it was me. Like full on, not doped up, realized it was his mom,” Christine said.
On Jan. 29 Erick was taken out of the Covid unit.
By Feb. 5 Erick was given a tracheotomy, which he will have a permanent scar from.
Erick’s tracheotomy was removed on March 4.
“They told us if he were 20 years older he never would have made it. The only thing on his side at this time was his age,” Christine said.
Even though Erick has been home for more than one month, he still has to take steps to heal from the long-lasting side effects of the coronavirus.
Currently, he is undergoing physical therapy and occupational therapy. He also has to do a new sleep study to check his sleep apnea and keep eyes on his elbow, where there could be some possible nerve damage from laying in the hospital for a long period. Erick also has had to deal with a bed sore and hair loss.
Erick received a signed blanket by the Porter Adventist Hospital North and ICU teams and a signed card.
Since March 2020, Box Butte County has had 933 positive cases and nine deaths. There are five new cases that have occurred within the last 14 days. A total of 26,011 Panhandle residents have received the COVID-19 vaccine.