When we stepped onto the tennis court Sunday, more than two weeks had passed since John McConnell had endured what he calls a “bad day” – or a haunting reminder of the coronavirus that nearly killed him.
He doesn’t know when, or if, he’ll have another one.
“Most days, I feel pretty good, almost back to normal,” the 66-year-old Indian River Shores resident said of his recovery from a frightening bout with COVID-19 in March. “Periodically, though, I’ll have a bad day or two where I feel extremely tired. If I walk up a flight of stairs, I get short of breath.
“That began about six weeks ago, and it would happen every 10 days or so,” he added. “Until then, I was feeling better and better every day, every week. I had started hitting tennis balls again, playing golf, riding my bicycle. Then I had a couple of bad days.”
Four months after spending six days at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, where he tested positive for COVID-19 and was treated for double-pneumonia, the former ABC Radio executive continues to feel the lingering effects of the virus.
He’s not alone.
While 80 percent of people infected with COVID-19 experience only mild symptoms that depart in two weeks – and more severe cases can produce symptoms that last for up to six weeks – the Cleveland Clinic website warns of a growing number of patients who report symptoms that linger for months.
They’re called “long-haulers,” according to the website, and their symptoms tend to be similar to those they experienced during the acute phase of their illness, especially fatigue.
McConnell, who lost 17 pounds during his illness, said he’s still regaining lung capacity and rebuilding leg strength, and he continues to “take it slowly.” But he’s encouraged by his progress and optimistic that he’ll fully recover.
“I’m 100 percent confident I’ll get back to where I was before this happened,” said McConnell, who was a nationally ranked college tennis player. “I’m still in the healing process, but, according to my X-rays, there’s no permanent damage to my lungs. So, I don’t believe this is something I’m going to have to deal with forever.
“I’ve done a lot of reading on the subject, and there’s still a lot we don’t know about the long-term effects of this virus,” he added. “But knowing what I know now – knowing what I went through and how compromised I was – I know I’m extremely lucky.”
McConnell, a senior vice president for a broadcasting talent agency, first noticed something was wrong in mid-March, days after returning from a business meeting in New York.
He said he lacked energy and was sleeping as much as 18 hours a day, symptoms that prompted a visit to a local urgent-care clinic, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs. A doctor prescribed an antibiotic and advised him to get tested for the coronavirus if his condition worsened.
The next morning, he awoke with a fever, called the hospital and made an appointment to get tested at its drive-through facility. That night, however, his fever persisted, and he began to feel pain in his chest.
He went to the hospital’s ER in the morning and was later admitted. His condition, though, continued to worsen over the next 48 hours – so much so that his doctor was preparing to transfer him to the intensive care unit and put him on a ventilator.
“My fever had spiked to 103.5, the pneumonia was wreaking havoc in my lungs and the doctor said my blood tests were showing potential kidney and liver failure,” McConnell said. “I remember the head of the ICU coming in to tell me I needed to go on the ventilator and what to expect.”
Which meant his odds weren’t good.
“I knew if I went into the ICU, I might not come out,” McConnell said. “I called my wife, Marie, and she was crying because she had already spoken to my doctor. I said goodbye to her over the phone, not knowing if we’d ever see each other again.”
He also called his two sons.
Emotionally drained, McConnell then fell asleep. But when he awoke two hours later, he noticed something was different and called for a nurse, who summoned his doctor, Gene Posca.
“I told him I was feeling better – that my fever was gone, and my head wasn’t as foggy,” McConnell said. “So, they checked my oxygen levels, and they had improved, too. Hour by hour, I kept getting better. I never went to the ICU.”
What caused the turnaround?
McConnell believes it was his decision to take hydroxychloroquine – the lupus and malaria drug touted by President Trump but questioned by medical experts who cite mixed results in studies to determine its effectiveness in quelling the effects on COVID-19.
“I took the first pill about 18 hours earlier, so the timing fits,” McConnell said. “On the other hand, there’s another medical opinion that my fever got so high that it helped defeat the infection. And that’s certainly a possibility.”
What convinced him to try it? McConnell said he had spoken with longtime friend and Fox News personality Sean Hannity to tell him he was in the hospital, and Hannity put him in touch with television show host Dr. Mehmet Oz.
“Dr. Oz concluded that I had the virus, so he talked to Dr. Posca and told him, ‘You need to get him on hydroxychloroquine,’” McConnell said. “After discussing the pros and cons with Dr. Posca, I told him, ‘OK, let’s do it.’
“At the time, Cleveland Clinic was allowing it,” he added. “I understand that they’ve since seriously restricted its use.”
Cleveland Clinic’s website states that its medical experts recommend against using hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 because the results of many clinical trials are inconclusive, and the drug has been connected to heart problems.
Whatever saved his life, McConnell is grateful to have survived a trauma – for the second time in his life.
Back in 2005, McConnell fractured two vertebrae in his neck and was temporarily paralyzed after a bicycling accident near his home on New York’s Long Island. The fall could’ve killed him, or at least left him unable to walk again, but it did neither.
“I guess somebody’s looking out for me,” McConnell said.
The bicycle wreck proved to be a life-altering moment for McConnell, whose research on spinal injuries motivated him to take a leadership role with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which was formed after the “Superman” actor was paralyzed in an equestrian accident in 1995.
Now, McConnell is motivated again, using the story of his personal battle against COVID-19 to fight for an emergency order requiring that masks be worn in indoor public places. He was scheduled to address the Vero Beach City Council at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I’m extremely disappointed that our local leaders haven’t made masks mandatory,” said McConnell, who moved to the island in September. “Why do they continue to put the people of our community in harm’s way?”
McConnell doesn’t know where or how he got infected, but he’s sure of this: “I’ve had the virus once and barely got through it. I don’t want to risk getting sick again.”
He’s had enough bad days.