Our Covid Story

Melissa Bowman was diagnosed with asthma at a young age. Unfortunately, her condition worked against her when she tested positive for COVID on August 17, 2020. Melissa did everything she could to self-medicate at home and overcome this virus. Two days went by and her oxygen levels plummeted, and she was rushed to the hospital in need of extra care.

Melissa was admitted to the COVID floor of the hospital on August 19, 2020. She was placed on oxygen and underwent different techniques to hopefully bring her o2 stats back up and allow her breathing to resume normally. These treatments worked, but not as good as she or her doctors wanted them too. After almost a week of continued care and therapy, her medical team decided that the only way to provide her body with the oxygen that it needed, Melissa needed to be intubated and placed on the ventilator.

On August 26, 2020, Melissa was admitted to the ICU floor of Novant Presbyterian Main in Charlotte, NC. She was placed on a ventilator and started receiving intensive care and treatment to help her chances to over come her fight. To allow the staff to have full control of her treatment and for her body to not be in any pain, she was under the anesthesia of a paralytic. This allowed her body to absorb every level of oxygen that the ventilator was providing. It also allowed the medical staff to move her body and place her in the proning position, or as her family liked to call it, adult tummy time.

With the visiting restrictions set in place by the CDC, her family had to watch her treatment and her struggle from afar. They participated in various Zoom calls and telephone calls that allowed them to talk to her. Even though she was in an unconscious state due the paralytic, her family knew that she was able to hear them and they were not going to let her be completely alone. While in this state of unconsciousness and intense treatments, she developed a pneumothorax causing her lungs to collapse and chest tubes to be inserted. The chest tubes did their job, reinflated her lungs and set her back on track for recovery.

Fast forward to September 17, 2020. Melissa’s family received a call from the hospital allowing them to go visit her through the window/door of her room. Her family was not allowed to enter the room or be next to her but was able to lay eyes on her as she was still undergoing treatment.

At this point in her fight, the doctors were not giving up, but her body was not healing at the pace they wanted. Her medical team decided that preforming a tracheostomy would be risky, but in her best interest to work in sync with the continuous need of the ventilator.

On September 20, 2020, the tracheostomy procedure was successful, and they were able to remove the paralytic and allow her body the chance to start waking back up.

Being on the paralytic for so long, Melissa struggled to gain consciousness. The doctors and her medical team did not have an explanation to why she was not waking up. Her doctors told us we needed a miracle.

Her family prayed for a miracle, a miracle for her to wake up and join us back here in the real world. On October 2, 2020, the visitor restrictions were lifted, and Melissa was allowed one family visitor at a time. This allowed her family to be there beside her as she fought to wake up.

Her family prayed over her for a miracle. Waking up was a crucial part to her recovery and as days went by and no signs of waking up, her family never lost hope.

Her daughter, Madilyn remembers sitting by her, holding her hand praying to every holy spirit to give Melissa the power and strength to wake up. Melissa’s entire family, her husband, her son, her mother, and her brothers prayed for a miracle. Her husband, Michael, created multiple CD’s containing some of her favorite songs and delivered a CD player to the hospital. The nurses and doctors were instructed to play the music in her room to help stimulate her brain. They abided and played those CD’s on loop and never let her be in complete silence.

October 6, 2020 was the first day in a little over a month that Melissa opens her eyes and made a connection with her daughter Madilyn. Her blue eyes saw light and from that day forward she was awake a fighting.

The next several weeks were a roller coaster of ups and downs. Melissa worked closely with her respiratory therapists, physical therapists, and doctors to do everything she could to help her gain her health back while confined to her hospital bed.

She would have her good days and bad days. Melissa had to undergo dialysis treatment, regular and CRRT, to help combat her kidney failure. The overload of blood pressure medications and heart medications did a number to her normal bodily functions.

Her family would go one at a time daily and sit with her for hours upon hours.

Her continued progress was always challenged with setbacks due to the state of her lungs.

Melissa improved cognitively and physically she was gaining slight movements back. Melissa would mouth words, full sentences, and developed a new way a communicating with her medical staff and family.

Then things took a turn for the worse.

Despite Melissa’s efforts to fight, her body was tired. Having constant issues with her blood pressure and heart, her dialysis treatments were not safe. Her lungs were stiffening and had not improved. Her blood gas tests showed us the reality. She was retaining toxic amounts of CO2. Her body was tired.

On November 13, 2020, surrounded by her family, Melissa passed away. Her family was lucky and blessed to have been there beside her. Much like everyone knows, love ones pass every day alone in their hospital room due to COVID and restrictions on visitors.

A month ago, her family was told she needed a miracle. So, they prayed for a miracle. That miracle was Melissa waking up and battling her fight for as long as she could, spending more time with her family, and making sure we all were told I love you, one last time.

Beneficiary Information
Name: Michael Bowman
Relationship to Deceased: Husband