CENTERVILLE — Naree Vanetten knew something was strange, several weeks ago, when she lost her sense of smell and taste. And when she felt fatigued.
She knew something was wrong when her breathing became difficult – a feeling confirmed when her daughter saw her.
“My daughter said I didn’t look that good,” she said.
So Serene Vanetten took her mother to Miami Valley Hospital South’s emergency room. That’s where doctors found her oxygen levels had dropped, and informed her it was COVID-19, and that her mother may have not survived had she not brought her in that night.
“She had blocked out,” Serene Vanetten said. “Your heart sinks.”
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Doctors eventually transferred Naree to Miami Valley Hospital’s main campus in Dayton, where she spent 11 days in the intensive care unit.
Finally, she was released and reunited with her daughter.
The family now is warning others to take health guidelines – and the threat of the virus – seriously. Serene Vanetten said the mother contrasted the experience to her battle years ago with colon cancer.
“When she had colon cancer, comparing the two, she said yes you have pain and you get chemo and all that – but she’s like it’s a different feeling when you can literally not grasp for air and can’t breathe.”
Naree returned to work just five days after getting out of the hospital, with two negative tests confirming her battle with the virus was over. On a course of steroids, still, she said she is symptom free. But she feels lucky to be able to say that.
“Everybody has to take (the virus) seriously,” she said. “It’s no joke because when you have it it’s very bad. You don’t want to have to go to the hospital ICU like me.”
Cox Media Group
