CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – It was Aug. 12 and Valerie Gaither Smith’s 58th birthday.
Masked healthcare workers lined the Tennova Healthcare lobby for a birthday and recovery celebration in honor of the grandmother of two who’d spent 35 days in the hospital, half of that time on a ventilator, fighting COVID-19, pneumonia and serious complications.
As the elevators doors chimed open, Gaither Smith was surprised as the group sang “Happy Birthday” with applause and cheers.
“It was overwhelming, and it was unexpected,” Gaither Smith said. “I wouldn’t have cried so much, but I was so in the moment.”
Gaither Smith not only had to battle COVID-19 infection, but the problems it caused: kidney failure, heart failure, respiratory failure, pneumonia, sepsis and muscle atrophy. Doctors had to put her in a medically induced coma as COVID-19 attacked her organs.
The fanfare from her recovery was a celebration of her strength, faith and the gift of life.
“It was nothing but the grace of God. It was God,” she said. “I was blessed to be alive. … I’m very grateful for everything that everybody did and everyone who had a hand in my recovery. It was not an easy process, but I had no idea I had so many well-wishers behind me.”
‘I felt like I was in the trunk of a car dying …’
Back in June, her daughter Dominique White, a small-business owner, had become ill, and days later Gaither Smith said she felt a tickle in her throat and thought she was getting a cold. They both quarantined in the family home.
White went 11 days with no relief from her symptoms. By July 5, White was admitted into Tennova and diagnosed with COVID-19 and pneumonia. Two days later, Gaither Smith was admitted, and within 24 hours taken to the ICU and placed on a ventilator.
“I ultimately waited too late to go to the ER; it was 12 days later, and I was bleeding internally,” Gaither Smith said. “I walked out to the car, and by the time I got to ER, I was too weak to walk. That’s when I learned my O2 level was in the 70s and my blood pressure was all over the place. They gave me oxygen and did a COVID-19 test. I didn’t know the results. I was going in and out. My kids said I texted them and said it was praying time.”
Everything happened fast for Gaither Smith, who tested positive for COVID-19, had pneumonia and was suffering dehydration.
“We didn’t know that she was actually put on a ventilator until a doctor came into my hospital room and told me that my mom was already in ICU and had been intubated,” White said.
For two weeks, Gaither Smith stayed on the ventilator fighting for her life. It felt like she was stuck in a nightmare.
“I felt like I was in the trunk of a car dying. I could hear my heart beating but couldn’t move. I couldn’t open my eyes. It was all darkness. I had no sense of time or anything,” she said, emotion filling her voice. “I wanted somebody to find me. I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear people around me when I was in the trunk. I kept thinking, ‘They don’t know I’m in here.’ When they did the checks, I’d see light and then when they got done, it’s like they’d put me back in the trunk. … That’s the sensation I had. That was my reality, and the horror of it all was still there.”
During those two weeks, she was diagnosed with kidney failure, heart failure, respiratory failure, pneumonia and sepsis.
“I remember the moment I started back fighting. I said, Lord I’ve served you all my life and I’ve been a faithful servant. I said, This can’t be how it’s going to end for me in the trunk of a car. I couldn’t talk but I was thinking. God, you have me in the palm of your hand. I started thinking God can do all things but fail and saying Bible Scriptures in my mind. This was not going to be how things will end.”
White said so much fear went through her as she learned that her mother, who had been perfectly healthy, was facing serious complications. She had to authorize the medical staff to begin dialysis due to acute kidney failure.
“My biggest fears were losing my mother and my boys getting sick,” White said. Luckily, the kids weren’t affected. It hurt, though, not being able to be there with her mother. “We couldn’t physically be there with her. That was rough.”
Faith and determination
Gaither Smith was taken off the ventilator two weeks later.
“I was able to talk, and it was a whisper. It was light and soft. I’ve always had a coarse, raspy voice,” she said.
The first thing Gaither Smith noticed was a machine hooked to her body.
“I was already hooked up to the dialysis machine because my kidneys had failed. They’d put me on two to three days after I was on the ventilator. I was shocked. I saw this big machine and I said, ‘What is that?'” Gaither Smith said. “He told me I was on dialysis, and I said they made a mistake, I’m not on dialysis. He told me I had acute kidney failure. I said, ‘I don’t do dialysis, I decline!”
She had developed muscle atrophy and couldn’t move her arms, legs, walk or feed herself.
She began undergoing physical and occupational therapy daily, did rehabilitation and had dialysis two to three times a week. She was moved from ICU to the COVID-19 floor and then, after testing negative twice, to a step-down unit.
Her progress was quick and her recovery steady.
“I’m a show pony and I do my best work under pressure,” she said, laughing. “I learned I rise to the occasion when put under pressure.”
Her kidneys are now adequate, and she will continue testing to see if she can stop dialysis.
“I knew dialysis can’t be my life. God is not a halfway. God, he brought me all the way out. I beat COVID-19!”
King crab and cheesecake
On Aug. 12, she was home to celebrate with a family seafood boil, including the king crab legs she wanted and cheesecake for dessert.
“Everybody was so happy to have her home,” White said. “Now that we are both home, it’s an amazing feeling to just be able to be here with our family, because this could’ve gone in a different direction.”