CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – While the percentage of those who recover from COVID-19 in Clarksville-Montgomery County is over 88%, some of those who survive the virus are still dealing with life-altering conditions left in its wake.
Such is the case for Ramon Ulises Nunez, who lost 70 pounds during a three-week coma caused by COVID-19 complications.
A 46-year-old Mexican immigrant, Ramon was a strong man who went to the gym regularly over the last six years. He and his wife Mildred ate healthy foods, he’d never used drugs, and only drank alcohol once or twice a year.
To Mildred, Ramon was her Superman. She collected Wonder Woman memorabilia, and the pair bonded over their love of superheroes.
Since emigrating to Tennessee, Ramon has worked in tobacco fields, lumberyards, and sawmills just to name a few of the labor-intensive jobs he’s held. But his love was commercial and home painting here in Clarksville and in parts of Kentucky.
That all changed on July 19, when Ramon was rushed to the hospital. A few of his friends called an ambulance, and he was taken to Tennova Healthcare after his breathing became concerning.
Positive
After receiving word from Ramon’s friends, Mildred called that night to find out what condition he was in. Doctors in the emergency room told her Ramon was “breathing good, making jokes, and talking about his 17-year-old daughter.”
The next morning she called to find that Ramon was transferred to the ICU. He had taken a turn for the worse, and was now intubated and in a medically-induced coma.
“On the third day of being there was when they finally got the results back,” his wife Mildred told Clarksville Now. “The doctor had been telling me that he would be very shocked if he didn’t have the virus from everything they were testing him for and everything they were seeing.”
The test results came positive for COVID-19, and Ramon would spend the next three weeks intubated, comatose, and alone.
Separation
Mildred called Tennova every day and night to try and get information about Ramon’s condition, which she said was constantly up and down. His blood sugar began spiking, his breathing was symptomatic of something akin to altitude sickness.
She only thought her husband was going to be in the hospital for a week maximum. A week turned into two, then two weeks turned into three. He was still intubated.
All the while, Mildred was trying to secure health insurance for Ramon. She applied for Medicaid with help from Elizabeth Valdez, the founder of the Clarksville Hispanic American Family Foundation (C.H.A.F.F.), a non-profit organization here in Clarksville.
“And the following Monday, I got a letter saying that they had denied his insurance. He’s a 46-year-old man who has worked his whole life, and yeah, they denied him,” Mildred said.
“They were saying they didn’t have enough information but we had sent everything. His legal residence card, I had a copy of his drivers license because between the ambulance drive to the hospital, somebody had lost his drivers license.”
Once Ramon’s hospital case worker caught wind of the denial, she filed an appeal on his behalf. “She said, ‘I saw that you put it in and I saw the denial.’ She was like ‘Oh no, he’s going to get this,’” Mildred said.
A couple days later, he was approved for insurance.
An uphill battle
The day before his 46th birthday, Ramon received a tracheotomy and a tube to allow him to possibly breathe on his own.
“It was three weeks of not hearing him, not seeing him. Finally, after three weeks, they took him off the intubation and they put a trach in his neck. I was able to take his cell phone up there and was able to video chat with him,” Mildred said.
But when Mildred was finally able to see her husband, it was a shock.
“It scared me, I did everything I could not to cry,” Mildred said. “I was scared. I didn’t know what to think.”
Ramon had seemingly withered away: his body had atrophied, and he was in a daze-like state. He had no idea that he’d been in a coma for so long, let alone had COVID-19. He was suffering from memory loss, and could not recall the week before he was taken to the hospital.
Recovery
Finally, after four weeks in the hospital, Ramon was transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Nashville where he could begin to work on his breathing and gaining back the strength he once had.
“He’s exercising in the bed, lifting weights. He just got a barbell now that was 8 pounds,” Mildred said. “Only a month ago, I went up there and he couldn’t lift his arm up off the bed without shaking.”
Tamara Latham, a co-worker of Mildred’s and a family friend, adds that watching what the Nunez family has gone through has been devastating.
“We don’t know if he’s going to have to continue to have the trach or not, or anything,” Latham said.
Nurses at the rehabilitation facility advised that Ramon will likely continue to be there until Christmas. His lung-scarring was so severe that no one knows what life for Ramon will look like after he leaves the facility.
“I have to keep working, because for the first time in his life he’s not going to be able to go back to any of the jobs he’s ever done,” Mildred said.
“What I had to go through, what these people are going through to watch their family that they can’t even go up there to see them,” Mildred told Clarksville Now through tears.
“Life isn’t perfect but I know that without this virus, he wouldn’t have gotten sick,” Mildred said, adding that she wishes people would stop fighting over the mask mandates and other things associated with COVID-19.
Mildred said that once Ramon gets out of the facility, he wants to educate family and friends about the virus.
“If you’re a superman and think you’re not going to get it, well this superman did,” Latham said.
Do you or a loved one have a story involving COVID-19? Email us as news@clarksvillenow.com.
Angela Peterson contributed to reporting this story.