Recovered coronavirus patients advise being patient, staying positive

Four Long Island residents who recently won their battles with coronavirus say they hope sharing their experiences will pass on to others the importance of being patient, staying positive and living in the moment.

As regions of the state sit on the cusp of reopening some businesses, the recovered COVID-19 patients urge their neighbors to continue to stay at home and obey social distancing orders.

While they each experienced the disease under different circumstances and at varying degrees of severity, they all separately shared feelings of gratitude for being “the lucky ones.”

In early April, there were nearly 800 deaths reported daily in New York, a number that has since dropped to below 200 a day over the past three days. On Long Island, the total number of deaths due to the coronavirus reached 3,684 on Tuesday.

As elected leaders discuss steps to reopen businesses, the number of those testing positive reached 340,661 statewide on Tuesday.

The four recovered patients shared their experiences to help those who might be feeling symptoms or caring for someone with the disease. Here are their stories:

Heather Palmore

Heather Palmore, 49, of Amityville, said her seasonal allergies typically start affecting her around mid-March. So, when she started feeling sick, with incessant coughing and sneezing, she didn’t think much of it, she said.

“I’m not thinking that it’s the virus at all,” said Palmore, who works as a trial attorney at a firm in New York City.

She decided to go to a local CVS pharmacy to pick up allergy medication one day when she noticed she was losing her breath while coughing. But as she got back in her car to return home, an alarm rang in her head, she said.

“I literally could not breathe in my car. I rolled down the window and I couldn’t get air in,” Palmore said. Instead of driving back home, she drove to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center.

Immediately on arriving, she was told to bypass the tent where people would be tested for COVID-19 and go to the emergency room. She had a 101.7-degree fever, she said.

As she looked around her and saw a bustling floor of nurses and patients, something struck her, she said.

“It was eerily quiet, but it was jam packed with people,” Palmore said.

She was tested and able to return home a few hours later. Doctors prescribed her a Z-Pak, short for azithromycin, an antibiotic used to treat upper respiratory tract infections. She was also given albuterol, which is used to treat shortness of breath.

Two days later, she learned she tested positive, she said.

“I was thinking: I don’t have time for this. It can’t happen to me. I wash my hands. I practice good hygiene. And then I caught it,” Palmore said.

In addition to the shortness of breath, she had frequent high fevers and headaches that would last days, she said.

“I tried to just listen to my body,” Palmore said. “But the thing about this virus is that it’s long. You’ll feel better, like you can conquer the world, and then it’ll knock you back down on your back.”

She recommends those fighting the virus to have patience with their recovery.

“Understand that even if you feel better, your body still needs to reset itself,” Palmore said.

Palmore said getting the coronavirus was “not the way I had envisioned 2020.” But going through the experience, she has new plans focused on being healthy and exercising.

“I certainly want to go into the next chapter of my life being much healthier, much more intentional about what I put in my body, what I eat, how I move — those are the things that matter,” Palmore said. “Things are going to happen that we can’t prevent, but I think being prepared will certainly help in any battle.”

Carmen St. George

Carmen St. George, 47, of Mount Sinai, had two key things that helped her persevere during the days she was hospitalized with COVID-19: hot yoga and a special saying from her dad, “every day is Thanksgiving Day.”

On March 13, St. George began feeling something was off while at the Suffolk County Supreme Court building in Riverhead, where she works as a state Supreme Court justice. She handles an array of cases, including medical malpractice, personal injury and motor vehicle injury actions.

Her symptoms started mild but three days later she developed a fever, chills, an upset stomach, a dry cough and shortness of breath.

As someone who previously had two cases of pneumonia, she felt she needed to get checked for the virus once she noticed her trouble breathing. She was tested and went to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment.

“It was nerve-wracking and scary because I had two little kids at home and I had been in their company the whole time,” St. George said of finding out she was positive and learning she would need to stay in the hospital. “Naturally, you want to survive. I didn’t want anything to cause me to have to be attached to a ventilator.”

She practiced deep breathing exercises she learned from years of doing hot yoga, which is yoga done in rooms heated to about 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

“The principle is to learn to become comfortable in an uncomfortable situation and learn to control your breathing,” she said. “I think that helped me.”

As for her father’s saying, she said it helps remind her to stay in the moment.

“It reminds you that come what may, you have to learn how to live today,” St. George said. “You can always have a goal for tomorrow, but you really can’t lose sight of what you have right now.”

During her time in the hospital, she said there were times when “I felt it was so depressing.”

Through social media, she knew of a mutual friend who was being treated on the same floor as she was. Days later, she learned that friend had died.

“I’m fortunate, I’m one of the lucky ones,” St. George said. “People who are going to the parks, going to the stores for unnecessary items, finding excuses to get out of their houses — I’m urging them to stay home.”

On April 30, more than a month after she first began feeling sick, St. George had a final test that determined she was negative. She said she planned to donate her plasma in hopes of helping others fight the virus.

“I think that people have to be reminded that when you’re recovering, it takes rest,” St. George said. “You don’t need to rearrange a closet. You don’t need to start working on a home project. This is a time for us to heal as individuals and clearly it’s a message that you have to heal as a community.”

Rose and Teddy Braun

Rose Braun, 85, and Teddy Braun, 90, have lived in Franklin Square since they were married in 1956. When Teddy Braun began exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus, Rose Braun said she was ready to pull up her sleeves and help him fight it.

“We’ve been together nearly 65 years and I wanted to keep him around a little longer,” Rose Braun said.

Teddy Braun’s symptoms included coughing and fevers. When he was taken to urgent care for X-rays of his lungs and to get tested for the virus, Rose Braun was also given a test, although her symptoms were far milder, she said. 

Both of the Brauns had positive results. Teddy Braun had pneumonia in both of his lungs. Despite the odds, Rose Braun said she was determined not to let her husband get worse or get hospitalized, she said.

“If he was in the hospital and I couldn’t go see him, he would’ve never made it, because he needs me,” Rose Braun said. “And I need him, too.”

Teddy Braun, who retired as head custodian for the Sewanhaka Central High School District, served in the Navy Reserves and Korean War. He and Rose Braun, a retired homemaker, often host taco nights at their home, where they invite their children, Lynne and Teddy, and their grandchildren. Hosting dinner has been an event they miss the most during the weeks of quarantine, Rose Braun said.

She thanked their doctor, Jeffrey Spivak, whose office is in New Hyde Park, and children for walking her through how to take care of her husband over frequent Zoom chats. She said that Franklin Square Pharmacy was also a big help, delivering Tylenol for his fevers, cough syrup and prescribed medication.

“I prayed to God every day to let me be the caregiver, not the patient,” Rose Braun said. “If I was too sick to help him, then we would’ve been in trouble.”

Her advice to anyone in her place is to keep a positive attitude, she said.

“You’ve got to have faith in God and you have to think positive,” Rose Braun said. “At 90 years old, he was able to resist all this that happened to him.”

She said her husband had trouble remembering how sick he had gotten, due to his older age. When asked about his experience, he said, “She took good care of me.”

On April 27, neighbors and family held a drive-by celebration for his 90th birthday, which brought smiles to the family since Rose and Teddy Braun were also feeling much better.

“I was really worried about him at one point,” Rose Braun said. “I’m able to sleep better now and smile, which I didn’t do much of when this started. I’m smiling a lot more now.”