Steve Thomas, a law enforcement officer, shares his firsthand account of contracting COVID-19 with bilateral pneumonia and spending seven days in the hospital, including two in the ICU. He describes how emotional support from his ICU nurse, his family, and his department’s peer support network were critical to overcoming concurrent depression and achieving both physical and emotional recovery.
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Transcript
[00:15:26] tee this up real quick
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[00:16:14] I had pneumonia in both lungs, the right actually being worse than the left, and I was tested positive for COVID-19.
[00:16:21] I then spent seven days in the hospital, including two, in the ICU unit before I had my recovery.
[00:16:29] And it was really the principles of SISM that helped me greatly in my recovery.
[00:16:36] Because I wasn’t only physically sick, but I was emotionally sick.
[00:16:42] I knew from my training that I was fighting depression while I was in the hospital.
[00:16:50] And it was really the part that helped with that, led me into my recovery, was the support I received from my department,
[00:16:57] my family, and the community.
[00:17:01] The two posters behind me actually helped a lot.
[00:17:04] My nurse in the ICU unit, Allie, was incredible for being a support.
[00:17:09] She made the one poster.
[00:17:11] She was a constant.
[00:17:12] She had contact with my family, updating them and letting me know that they were okay.
[00:17:16] With that, she made the one, letting me know that I was going to be recovering, giving me that positive expectation.
[00:17:24] The second was the collage of pictures that my family made.
[00:17:29] Once they made the poster, my wife drove it to the hospital.
[00:17:31] And of course, you can’t have visitors in the hospital.
[00:17:34] Allie actually ran out in the parking lot.
[00:17:35] Then my wife brought it up and taped it onto the wall so I could see it and just remind me of the good times with my family.
[00:17:41] And again, that I would recover.
[00:17:45] My department was sensational.
[00:17:47] Before I was hospitalized, they were extremely supportive.
[00:17:51] My captain was in constant contact with my wife.
[00:17:53] I actually had her take my departmental phone so I wouldn’t be trying to answer emails or texts so that I could get rest and recover.
[00:18:01] Once I was in the hospital, the support was even tenfold.
[00:18:07] The chief actually called my wife and made sure.
[00:18:11] knew that anything that she needed my family needed or i needed he and the department would
[00:18:17] be there to support my captain was overwhelmingly actually supportive and i can’t say enough
[00:18:22] gratitude for what he did she made sure that because my family was quarantined due to me
[00:18:28] testing positive that they had food anything they needed all they had to do was ask and some things
[00:18:34] they didn’t ask it was just there the department had a meal train for my family every day until
[00:18:40] i was actually off the quarantine once i got home we got meals from the department they um
[00:18:47] i received numerous text messages and even though i wasn’t able to respond to everyone it was really
[00:18:54] important to me to know that i had the full support of the department every commander in
[00:18:59] the department was sending me messages my co-workers members of our peer support team that
[00:19:04] i work with every day were sending me messages and that support was just overwhelming and i know
[00:19:09] it was critical
[00:19:10] in my recovery emotionally which actually helped me i know with my physical recovery i’m extremely
[00:19:17] blessed that i’ve been able to return to work the last week i worked the entire week and again the
[00:19:24] department was extremely supportive and not expecting me to come back at 100 but to come back
[00:19:30] and sort of coming in coming into the office and then teleworking some from home and i can’t give
[00:19:38] enough gratitude
[00:19:40] to stress this how important it is to let officers know that they are supported by the department
[00:19:46] and that their families are supported and anything that they need is taken care of
[00:19:56] out