PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — A Panama City woman is thankful to be alive on Saturday after surviving her long, life-threatening battle with COVID-19.
Pamela Myers says she spent six weeks in a coma after what she thought was an asthma attack, but turned out to be a COVID-19 diagnosis.
“I hear so many people say it’s like a cold, it’s like a flu, it’s not,” Myers said. “My whole life changed over COVID-19, I’m here to tell you, the flu don’t do you like that.”
Myers said although it only felt like one night’s sleep, the six-week coma presented challenges she had never faced before.
“When I woke up from COVID-19, everything in my life had changed,” she said. “I could not walk.”
She also said she was unable to smell or taste, or even talk. She said she had lost feeling in her legs, and thought one of her feet might need to be amputated from a pressure wound due to the coma. She was transferred from Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center to a hospital in Tallahassee, and then to a rehabilitation facility back in Panama City.
“When you wake up and you can’t feed yourself or bathe yourself or do anything for yourself and everybody has to do everything for you, you learn how to be so grateful,” she said with tears in her eyes.
Now, she’s warning residents to take the virus seriously.
“COVID-19 will take your life,” she said. “Mask-up, wash your hands, use hand-sanitizer.”
She was finally cleared to come home this week, after more than two months in medical care facilities. She says she is beyond grateful for the support she has received from the community, as well as the care she received from doctors and nurses throughout the experience. Most of all, she says she is thankful that God kept her safe along the way.
“That’s how I beat COVID-19, through the power of God,” Myers said.
Neighbors and friends said they are happy to see her back home; dozens of friends organized by Perry and Young Law Firm threw Myers a drive-by parade welcoming her home on Saturday evening, led by a Bay County Sheriff’s Office escort.
“I am just so grateful,” Myers said.” When you get a whole Panama City to come together and every single church prays for you, it’s how I beat COVID-19.”