Faith, Family and Silver Cross Help Frankfort Man Beat COVID-19

George Fushi remembers feeling a little tired and run down for several weeks in June. But there was a lot to do: a wedding coming up for his eldest son, high school football games with his youngest son, and running a title search company with his wife of 27 years, Tracy. 

He got tested for COVID, and it came up positive. After struggling through another few days, Tracy measured his blood oxygen levels on his Apple watch. 

“It was 69 percent,” said Fushi, of Frankfort. “So, she called an ambulance. I got in, and that’s the last thing I remember until waking up a month later.” 

Fushi wasn’t supposed to wake up. The medical team at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox said he had worsened so rapidly; the odds weren’t good. 

“When a COVID patient goes downhill that fast, they generally live only one or two days,” he was told later. 

At Silver Cross, Fushi was placed on a ventilator, and since he was in a coma for 30 days, if he did survive, they expected he would be on a ventilator the rest of his life. 

But just as he unexpectedly went downhill when he first arrived by ambulance at Silver Cross July 2, he was wheeled out of the hospital in late October, surrounded by family, friends and staff. 

Back home now, Fushi still has a cough and difficulty standing up. Even getting up to go to the bathroom wears him out. Physical therapy three times a week at Silver Cross’ Shirley Ryan AbilityLab will help build up his endurance once again so he can get back to work, and his appetite is starting to come back. 

Tracy still sounds as though she’s in shock. 

“At one point, we were thinking what we would have to do if George didn’t make it,” she said. “Now, here we are sitting at home like nothing happened.” 

But a lot had happened since July 2, enough that Tracy said she stopped asking, “What next?” 

The 30-Day Coma

After the ambulance took George to Silver Cross, Tracy called her son, Jett, 26, a cardiac intensive care nurse living in Oak Park. He bolted to New Lenox to be the family’s liaison. That was a good thing, since Tracy and the rest of the family contracted COVID as well. 

“Jett took off work and would call me and update me, or we’d have a three-way call with the doctors,” she said. “We couldn’t even see him in person for three weeks. I kept thinking, ‘Please don’t give up on him.’” 

That might have been a concern if it were a year earlier that George came in, said Dr. Alexander Sosenko, who specializes in pulmonary disease medicine. During the early days of the pandemic, he said, the governor gave doctors authority to decide when to pull a ventilator, since they were in such short supply at that time.

COVID progressed unlike anything he ever had seen in 37 years, Dr. Sosenko said. “It was much more difficult to bring up a patient’s oxygen levels, even when giving them 100 percent oxygen.” 

He said George had several factors weighing against him, including his weight, age and being unvaccinated. 

“Those patients typically don’t do very well,” he said. “There were a lot of patients like him who did not live. Now, he should be OK, but it will take him four or five months to completely recover. But he was really on the edge for a while. It could have gone either way.” 

Family, Friends Help Keep Spirits Up

Tracy said support from family and friends was key to helping her and the kids stay focused. 

“George absolutely hates to be alone. When he woke, he was in a hospital room in the ICU where two people could visit him at a time. Then due to COVID when he went to RML, they had visiting hours for 12 hours a day, but only three different people could go in on any given day. 

“Then they changed it so that only TWO people could come in on any one day. And he was there for two months. I was running our business and handling every other thing that had to do with that, and his care, and our five kids so I could not be there all the time.

“Our kids, plus his family—his sister and her family, his brother's kids—and some really, really good friends absolutely killed it making it go right to have someone there with him, bringing him food, helping him do rehab, keeping his spirits up, nearly every hour that they allowed visitors, every single day he was there. 

“One day, we would hear one thing, and then another, and it was always the worst-case scenario. And then, things just started happening with lightning speed.” 

One of those things was George’s eyes opening for the first time in a month on Aug. 3. Naturally groggy, he doesn’t remember much, only looking up to see his sons Nick and Joe looking down. 

Tracy said they were warned George could have some cognitive dysfunction after being in a coma for so long. “But soon, we could see he understood with his eyes what we were saying. But he got so frustrated because he couldn’t communicate to us!” 

That’s when Tracy also was told George could be on a ventilator the rest of his life. But in early August, he was transferred from Silver Cross to RML Specialty Hospital in Hinsdale to see if he could be weaned off the ventilator. 

Goodbye Ventilator, Hello Therapy

Amazingly, only 10 days later, George was able to have the ventilator removed and breathe on his own for the first time since July 2. A couple weeks later, they were helping him stand up.

“The first time they had me stand up after I got out of the coma, they wheeled in this contraption with metal bars and bands to help lift me,” he said. “When I stood up, I never felt such pain in my legs. But that’s getting better, too.” 

By early October, George was back to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab at Silver Cross for therapy to help build up his muscles. Looking over George’s records from RML, Dr. Ross Coolidge, D.O., who oversees the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, said he was concerned about muscle and/or nerve atrophy, something he has seen in many patients who were intubated for an extended time due to COVID. 

“We noticed muscle weakness in his shoulders and hips,” Dr. Coolidge said. “And I told him to expect to be in here at least three weeks.” 

George was in that long, but Dr. Coolidge still was amazed at his progress during physical therapy. 

“I attribute that to the hard work he put in,” Dr. Coolidge said. “Some patients don’t want to be in physical therapy. They’ve had enough of hospitals by the time they get to us. But George missed being with his family enough to light a fire under him.”

Hard Work Pays Off

Physical Therapist Natalie McGraw said looking at his chart when he came in, she thought, “This guy is going to be in pretty rough shape. And he did need help, but he worked hard. 

“He had sessions seven days a week for a total of three hours a day, and he improved each session. Within a few days, he actually was walking a little; then more and more each day. He is a remarkable story. He should be very proud.” 

George admits having a fire driving him during therapy: He wanted to make sure he could attend Jett’s wedding this month. 

As it turned out, he did well enough that he was able to see son Joe’s final Lincoln-Way East football game the day he was released. 

“And he’ll move up to varsity next year,” George said proudly. 

While he knows his recovery has been a miracle, George said he doesn’t understand why COVID nearly killed him. His family got it, and thankfully, they are fine. 

“I am overweight – I was 425 pounds. But I have a friend who is very overweight with high blood pressure who got COVID, and he’s fine. Even the doctors don’t really know. 

“It’s a miracle that I’m here,” he added. “Without Silver Cross, I wouldn’t be here. They saved my life.” 

For more information about COVID-19 treatment and prevention, visit www.silvercross.org