Cancer patient shows recovery from COVID-19

METAIRIE, La. (WVUE) - A Metairie cancer patient shows signs of recovery after testing positive for COVID-19.

The man was tested for the virus after a high fever two weeks ago.

Tara Reese said her husband, Louis, went to get chemotherapy to treat his colon cancer, when he was turned away because he had a high fever.

Reese said she finally had to take him to the hospital on March 10th.

"He spent all day in the ER on that Tuesday, and then he came home, but he was very sick and coughing a lot," Reese said.

Reese said she gave him tylenol, but his symptoms worsened.

"He would not get out of bed except to go to the restroom, and the reason why is cause when he would get up or he would sit up, it would cause him to cough," Reese said.

She said he returned to the hospital after testing postiive for COVID-19 this past Saturday.

"Sunday, the news was very grim. They told me they had to put him on a ventilator because he took a turn for the worse, and he was sedated," Reese said.

Reese said she struggled to tell her kids.

"My son, who's 17, and my daughter who's 12, we just cried together for like an hour and I prepared them and I told them their daddy might not come home," Reese said.

Doctors brought Reese good news Tuesday, telling her Louis no longer depended on a ventilator to breathe.

"When we texted yesterday, I was like Louis, we were so scared that we were going to lose you, and he said, I was so scared too, and he said he was scared to go to sleep because he was afraid he wasn't going to wake up," Reese said.

She believes her husband will come out of this stronger, after serving in the air force, and tackling cancer.

“The thing is he was already immunocompromised because of the chemotherapy, and then he got this. They had painted a really grim picture. I didn’t know if he was going to be able to come through this, but my husband is a fighter,” Reese said.

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