Drew Harris: Covid Survivor! Needs recovery help!

Please help Drew during his recovery process. 
Hi Everyone! Drew, our beloved son and a dear friend to many, has been battling Covid-19 since late March and has been hospitalized since April 1st, 2020. He has fought a good fight along with the wonderful staff at Advent Health Orlando and it is truly a miracle he is alive. He still has a long road to recovery. 

In his battle against Covid-19, he has come close to losing his life against this
terrible virus. The virus has ravaged his lungs and his body several times over. His left lung has serious damage and it will be awhile before his lungs heal. He is going to need extensive recovery and rehabilitation therapy once he gets out of the
hospital. 
What Drew has been through:

The beginning:

Drew started showing symptoms of Covid 19 on March 22. He was really sick
with all the advertised symptoms and several that they had not discovered yet.
On April 1 after not having a fever for two days he woke up and called me that he was scared because he was having difficulty breathing. He called 911. That was
the last time I heard my son’s voice until just a week ago. We were terrified. 



The next two weeks:
He developed ARDS, acute respiratory distress syndrome and hypoxemia, where there is not enough oxygen in your blood. The first two weeks he was put into a
medically induced coma and placed on a ventilator. He was then placed on an
ECMO machine as he wasn’t improving. The hospital he is at, thankfully, offers
ECMO, which oxygenates the blood and puts it back in the body. This procedure
saved his life. We got lucky that Drew got taken to AdventHealth Orlando.

Weeks 3 and 4:

After 3 weeks they extubated him (took him off the vent) and started prepping
him to come off ECMO. We were excited. We thought he had turned the corner,
but it was not to be. Six days later in the middle of the night we got a phone call
that he was in multi-organ failure, his left lung was bleeding internally and filling
up with blood. They said he was dying and they prepared us for a final FaceTime
visit because we were not allowed to come to the hospital. I yelled at the doctor
to do surgery to remove his lung if that was what was killing him. She said that
wasn’t an option. So we waited. We were numb and in disbelief. Two hours later
they called to say Drew rallied and they saved him. He was re-intubated (put back on the vent) for a second time.  

Week 5: 

Medically induced coma so his lungs could rest

Weeks 6 and 7:
He came off the ECMO 16 days later. Yay! Light at the end of the tunnel. His vent was replaced with a tracheostomy tube. The doctor called to tell us that he had a
couple of infections and they were concerned. He had sepsis,  most likely
from the ECMO tube and his trach site was refusing to heal. He needed surgery
on his trach site because of an abscess. 

Weeks 8, 9, 10:
Recovery mode - waking up from sedation, starting physical and occupational
therapy. Even though in the last month he was able to communicate by nodding or a thumbs up or down during short virtual visits he doesn’t remember most of that
because he was still under sedation. He did not really “wake up” until a week ago. 

Summary of Drew’s complications: 
During his fight against Covid-19, Drew has faced several challenges-ARDS,
hypoxemia, his left lung filled with blood and has collapsed twice, multi-organ
failure, pneumonia(reoccurring) acute kidney damage, two staph infections,
sepsis (fungal blood infection) a bleeding stomach ulcer, a blood clot and more. 

One of his doctors told us that he wasn’t just the sickest patient in the hospital
but the sickest in the region.  

Where Drew is at now:
He is still in the ICU but he is now in recovery mode. He has the trach as well as a
feeding plug as of this date. He is being weaned off the vent slowly, although he
went 24 hours with no vent support today!!! 48 hours is the magic number. He is
getting stronger and was almost able to stand up on his own today. He is
getting physical therapy to gain his muscle strength and coordination back.
He will have to learn to walk again. He is undergoing occupational therapy to
learn how to  control his fine motor skills and speech and language therapy to
learn to talk again. At this time he is not able to eat or drink yet. But that’s next on the agenda. 


We celebrate each day and each victory he has, as it’s a step, however small, in
the right direction. We are forever indebted to the doctors, nurses and staff at
AdventHealth Orlando for saving his life and taking such great care of him. 


What he needs: 
He has survived the worst and he is still here to tell the tale. Now comes the long
road to recovery. He has been hospitalized since April 1st, which has been 10
weeks and counting and because of another infection we are not sure when he
will be released to go to aggressive rehabilitation therapy. We are hopeful it will
be soon. His doctors have said it could be up to a year before he will be able to
return to work. His medical bills are continuing to climb, along with his regular
bills. We are asking for support to help him with his medical bills, rehabilitation
bills and some living expenses. 

We know that at this time money may be tight so any help is greatly appreciated!! All money raised will go towards Drew’s medical expenses, rehabilitation therapy, and living expenses. 

Thank you,
Amber Schur