ARVADA, Colo. — Nancy Clark spent 14 days in the hospital, six of those days on a ventilator. More than a few times, her husband of 30 years assumed she wasn’t going to make it.
And, yet, two weeks after her son took her to Avista Adventist’s emergency room, Clark left the Louisville hospital smiling, crying, and surrounded by the very nurses and doctors who saved her life.
The day she left, at least 202 other COVID-19 patients left Colorado hospitals, according to data released by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
In a state with hundreds of deaths and thousands of cases, stories like Clark's continue to provide glimmers of hope.
“God had another plan,” Nancy told 9Wants to Know just hours before she left the hospital. “I feel very fortunate.”
It’s hard to get a handle on just how many people in Colorado have recovered from COVID-19. As of now, CDPHE has yet to provide any estimate either.
Recently, however, CDPHE did start releasing numbers of discharges and transfers of COVID patients in Colorado daily.
The numbers provide a small glimpse into recoveries of the more seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
On April 14, for example, CDPHE reported 203 discharged. Two days later, CDPHE reported 239.
The number of discharges have decreased since then, but for people like Clark, every discharge represents a small victory over the virus.
“One of the nurses, I remember her saying, she said a lot of people who go (on) a ventilator don’t come off one,” she said when interviewed just outside her Arvada home.
“I was just so excited to come home,” she said.
“It was tough,” said her husband, Thom Clark. “I’m just glad she’s finally home.”
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