![]() Garry was sedated and unconscious, but he was likely aware of the activity going on around him, and “he was still holding his own,” Terri said. “At midnight the nurses asked everyone to go home so that Garry could rest,” Terri said. When they weren’t in Garry’s hospital room, family members gathered outside to comfort one another and pray. And they encouraged and prayed for him, while also preparing themselves for what was likely to come. Two by two, family members donned personal protective equipment and entered Garry’s intensive care unit room-to hug him, say goodbye and let him know how much they loved him. “Thankfully, Pastor Steve from the hospital was with me, but other than that, I was alone and knew I had to prepare myself.”Įarlier, Terri and her daughter had called family members to let them know they needed to get to CRMC as quickly as possible. “He looked like my dad did right before he died,” Terri said. When Terri got to Garry’s room, his skin was mottled blue and purple. “On the phone she could barely understand what I was saying,” Terri said, “so she rushed over to find out what was wrong.” Darlene immediately offered to drive Terri to CRMC so that she could be with Garry during his final hours. The neighbor, Darlene Smith, wife of local orthopedic surgeon Dr. Terri, who was weak from her own bout with COVID-19, called a neighbor for help. Garry’s condition was worse, and he wasn’t expected to live much longer. She is usually calm, but she was so upset. “I could tell something was terribly wrong. That day Terri’s daughter called around 8:30 a.m., “earlier than normal,” Terri said. On February 8 Terri got a call from her daughter telling her to get to the hospital right away.ĭue to poor cell phone service in the area, Terri had asked the doctors and nurses to provide Garry’s twice daily updates to her daughter, who would then get a hold of Terri. Struggling to breath, “Garry went from a BiPAP to a CPAP to a ventilator.” “My daughter told me what could happen, and that’s exactly what happened,” Terri said. Over the next week and a half, Garry’s condition got progressively worse. “That fourth test finally did come back positive,” she said. Kenny, the emergency department nurse who cared for Garry, told Terri that they were going to treat Garry like he had COVID-19. Up to that point, Garry had been given three COVID-19 tests, and they’d all come back negative. Garry was quickly admitted to the COVID-19 unit at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. “When I told him what we were doing, Garry just nodded. “When I described his symptoms, my daughter told me to get his things and take him to the hospital right away,” Terri said. He was also extremely tired and was having a hard time catching his breath. ![]() “I was on the phone with my daughter, who’s a nurse in a big hospital in Florida and has cared for COVID patients,” she said. Garry was tested for COVID-19 and was sent home with medicine to treat his symptoms.īy the next day, Garry was “much worse,” Terri recalled. Garry looked and felt bad enough that Terri took him to see a doctor. In the 15 years that I’ve known him, the worst thing he’s ever had was a sinus infection.” On January 20, the day after he returned home, 56-year-old Garry started to feel sick. Unfortunately, the precautions weren’t enough. ![]() “But there were so many people in the airport, and they were coming from everywhere.” right before the presidential inauguration wasn’t ideal. “We’d go to work and run errands, but we weren’t taking any big risks.” “We’d been careful about COVID,” Terri said. Garry and his wife, Terri Carpenter, live near Curt Gowdy State Park, west of Cheyenne. On January 18, Garry Carpenter flew to Washington, D.C., for work. Terri and Garry Carpenter: “We don’t take anything for granted anymore,” said Terri after her husband nearly lost his life to COVID-19.
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