ORE CITY, Texas — With all of the numbers and statistics on COVID-19, some are beginning to forget the human side of the pandemic.
CBS19 has set out to tell the stories of East Texans who have fought the coronavirus battle.
This week, we speak with, Cynthia Montgomery, from Ore City who has COPD and diabetes. She did everything she could to avoid getting COVID-19, only to have it walk right through her front door.
"I live alone, I have a caregiver and I think she gave it to me," she said. "She came in one day and said her doctor told her she had bronchitis. It didn’t even dawn on me that it may be Covid. I began to get sick a day or two after that and I went to the doctor. I was told I was having problems with my asthma. About a day after that I got sicker. I could barely walk and had trouble breathing. My daughter begged me, mama please go to the urgency room, please mama please, and I went to the ER."
Cynthia was taken back to the trauma room and had her temperature checked.
"When they told me I had 106° fever I was like oh my God, why? What’s going on with me?" she said. "They asked me if I had been around anyone with Covid, I said 'not to my knowledge' and they immediately swabbed my nose. While I was in the emergency room my caregiver gave me a call, she also at an emergency room and she had gotten worse and had been diagnosed with Covid. Then my test came back positive also and I was admitted."
Doctors told Cynthia that the virus was shutting down her lungs and heart.
"They immediately took me to ICU and started my treatment," she said. "They first gave me plasma and tons and tons of antibiotics. I had to go on oxygen."
She was in the ICU for about three weeks and then was moved to critical care.
"COVID-19 had taken me into a critical stage. It was shutting down my oxygen and my heart rate was dropping so they took me to critical care for two weeks," she explained.
"I was scared, but I knew God was with me. I had read up on some of the Covid patient, what they had been going through and what they were doing. I know that it was messing with the respiratory system so I had to be very careful. I know one thing is that you cannot lay flat, you have to sit up in the bed. You have to fight," she said.
Cynthia says there were doctors from all over the world.
"They flew in here as Covid specialist," she said. "The medical crew that I had was outstanding. I had double pneumonia with it and it weakened me, oh that I couldn’t walk. So I had to go to rehab and learn how to walk again. I left Longview Regional Medical Center and I was transferred to CHRISTUS Good Shepherd in Longview.
Cynthia says her faith helped her get through her COVID-19 experience.
"God! I knew he was there all the time," she said. "My family and my friends, people from all over the world, social media.
While in the hospitals, Cynthia was sharing her story on social media.
"There was one lady I met online, she was having such a hard time and I told her you’ve got to get up, you can’t let Covid take over your body," she said. "I’ve got to let Covid know that God is bigger than Covid. He is bigger than Covid, it’s just a test. I said keep your faith, you’re going to make it and she made it. She and I correspond every day."
Cynthia continues to inspire others as she fights to heal from the lingering effects of the coronavirus.
If you or someone you know has had a personal fight with the coronavirus, text us at (903) 600-2600.