Kristin Kay shares COVID-19 reality for patients, health care workers

Kristin Kay shares COVID-19 reality for patients, health care workers

Kristin Kay shares COVID-19 reality for patients, health care workers

For Kristin Kay, contracting COVID-19 turned into more than 100 days in the hospital where numerous machines and employees kept her alive while her body battled the virus and its severe symptoms and complications.

The 32-year-old nurse practitioner, wife and mother fell ill in December, quickly progressing from a cough to gasping for air to being heavily sedated for most of January and February.

She set a hospital record for the longest time on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO machine, spending 69 days on the technology normally used for a week. She got a pacemaker. She gained 50 pounds from bloating while lying down for weeks on end and was too heavy for a lung transplant she was considered for.

Kay had tubes everywhere. Some gave her water, medications, oxygen and electrolytes, while others drained excrement, carried fluid out of her chest and filtered toxins for her body when her kidneys could not.

She posted photos Saturday on Facebook of her harrowing reality inside North Florida Regional Medical Center at the peak of her illness.

In just days, her post has been shared almost 2,500 times, and some commenters have said her story inspired them to finally get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Kay said she and her husband, Steven Kay, first thought they might save the pictures for a one-year anniversary post. But they decided to share the images to show how serious the virus is and urge people to protect themselves and others as Florida undergoes its third and worst wave of COVID-19 so far. 

“We honestly weren’t going to share them … but I said, ‘Steve, I have to do something,'” Kay said. “Pictures speak volumes.”