A Concord mother and nurse is sharing her family’s experience with COVID-19 after her 29-year-old son recovered following a 21-day stay in the hospital with the virus.
Wendy Harsch said she has always watched out for her son, Trey Black since he was little.
"Trey had a lot of hospitalizations his first few years of life,” Harsch said, “and I never once left his side except for when I had the flu."
Harsch said Trey survived Leukemia at age two, Melanoma at age 18, and also has a rare metabolic disease, which puts him at high-risk for severe illness.
"I knew when COVID hit, my first thought was Trey, and if Trey got it, I don't know how bad it's going to be,” Harsch said. “It could be -- it could kill him."
Last June, Black drove to Buffalo, New York to see his fiancée, Dawn. In early July, Dawn said she tested positive for COVID-19.
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Black said he tested positive several days later and needed to go to the hospital after having trouble breathing.
"It was a rollercoaster,” Black said. “One day I felt good. One day I felt bad. The next day, I felt really bad."
Harsch said she and her sister-in-law drove nine and a half hours to Buffalo to be near Trey, even though they couldn’t visit him inside the hospital. After three days in the hospital in Buffalo, Harsch said it was determined Trey needed to be airlifted back to Charlotte to receive care for his metabolic disease and COVID-19.
Black’s family watched from a distance in Buffalo and Charlotte as he was airlifted from hospital to hospital.
Black spent several more days in the hospital in Charlotte. During one of the scariest times, Harsch said Trey needed to be placed on high-flow oxygen, and she could sense fear in him.
Harsch said she stayed up through the night on Facetime with him to keep an eye on his stats and keep his morale up.
"I said, 'Trey, I promise, if that alarm goes off, I'm going to call the hospital and get somebody in there to take care of you. I want you to sleep,’” Harsch said. “And we slept all night long with the on Facetime."
Black said he was scared doctors were going to put him on a ventilator at one point.
"I almost died. I ain't going to lie, I almost died,” Black said. “There's one point where I wanted to give up, but I didn't. I fought it, and I won."
His fiancée Dawn Skyped with him throughout his stay in the hospital and his family members sent messages to keep him motivated.
Harsch said she knew from being a nurse that human touch is important in helping people get better. Since she couldn’t provide that, she tried to do her best to encourage him to keep fighting through COVID-19.
“The spirit heals just as much as much as medicine does,” Harsch said.
After 21 days in the hospital and 10 of those in the ICU, Black was finally allowed to go home.
"It was just a moment of relief that I finally beat the thing,” he said.
Black said he still has some lingering effects from COVID-19, including a little forgetfulness from time to time.
He now has a warning for other young people, knowing from experience that this virus is not a joke.
"Stay social distance, and wear a mask,” Black said. “Wash your hands. It's not that hard."