Sharon Tapp, a nurse of 40 years, remembers going to the hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, with shortness of breath, and being taken care of right away, even from the parking lot.
“And then they were on the phone,” talking to the intensive care unit to get her transferred there. “After that, I don’t remember anything,” she told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin.
What followed were 117 days in the hospital for Tapp, who had Covid-19, including almost two months in a coma, induced when her heart, lungs and kidneys started failing, Tapp said.
“I did not know I was on a machine. I did not know I was in a coma for almost two months,” Tapp said, speaking in a raspy voice and with a bandage on her neck from a tracheotomy that came after she was intubated, she said.
“It is a lot to process. And it feels great to be alive. I’m so happy to be home. But it is a lot to process.”
Tapp had to relearn how to walk – and even how to swallow – with some “very intense” and tiring speech, physical and occupational therapy, she said.
“It was something that I just had to conquer,” Tapp said.
“I was willing and able to fight it and make sure that I came out, and that I was able to walk,” she said.
She’s gone from a wheeled walker to walking with a cane, and still has therapy three times a week.
“So, I still have a long way to go,” she said.