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GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The last time Channing Finkbeiner’s two teenage sons saw their father in person, he was unconscious and intubated.
The visit to the hospital amid the pandemic was only allowed because he might not be alive.
But on Wednesday, December 23, just two days before Christmas, they were able to see their father again – this time hugging him as he was released from hospital after a perilous three-month battle with COVID-19.
“From a medical standpoint, speaking to the ICU documents and reading the reports, I shouldn’t be alive,” said Finkbeiner, family doctor at Mercy Health.
“The thought of me coming home before Christmas to be with my family, I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas present.”
Finkbeiner, 47, has yet to fully recover. He has nerve damage to his feet and hands from the virus and is mobile with the help of a walker. His lungs are still weak and need low amounts of supplemental oxygen.
The issues should resolve with time and physical therapy, he said, and they’re a far cry from the five weeks he spent unconscious on a ventilator fighting for his life.
His wife, Laura, and two sons also contracted COVID but had a much different experience.
“Try to take COVID seriously because you don’t know,” Channing Finkbeiner said. “You can be like my wife and children, who were sick for a week and got better, or you can be like me and fight for your life.”
Channing and Laura Finkbeiner say they owe his “miraculous” recovery to God, a wave of prayers, and the medical experts at Mercy Health Saint Mary’s and Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids who treated him.
Used to being the doctor and not the patient, Channing Finkbeiner called it a “humiliating” experience that gave him a whole new perspective on his role as a caregiver.
Channing Finkbeiner exhibited symptoms of COVID-19 at the end of September and, after about a week of quarantine at home, these symptoms worsened to the point that he could barely breathe. His wife took him to the Mercy Health ER in Grand Rapids.
“I woke up early Friday morning completely out of breath and unable to breathe. It was terrifying, ”he said. “Honestly, I don’t think I was ever so scared as I was when I was in the ER.
It was one of the last things he remembered before he was unconscious for almost six weeks.
He was intubated a few days after his arrival and soon after his condition worsened and palliative care was called.
“That first week he was on the vent, he refused pretty quickly,” said Laura Finkbeiner. “Almost five days later, we were called to bring the boys down so we could all see him. They just didn’t know if he was going to succeed. He was not actively dying at the time, but we were visiting him and they were only doing end-of-life visits at that time. It was overwhelming. It is difficult to treat it.
From there his condition remained stable and slowly improved with a few setbacks here and there.
Unable to speak to her husband for around six weeks, Laura Finkbeiner said Channing Finkbeiner’s outpouring of support from friends, family, colleagues and even colleagues and patients comforted her during this time.
“It was just a long time to worry about whether he was going to be successful or not,” said Laura Finkbeiner. “I had a lot of people who contacted me regularly to tell me that they were praying for us and thinking of us and how could they take care of us.
In all, Channing Finkbeiner spent 37 days on a ventilator and 47 days in total in the intensive care unit at St. Mary’s.
When he was transferred to Mary Free Bed for rehab on November 24, he needed significant amounts of oxygen and had minimal ability to move his body.
He said he understood why some were unhappy with the restrictions everyone is facing due to COVID-19, but urged people to wear masks and follow social distancing protocols.
Finkbeiner, who says he barely survived, said it’s not just the elderly who are dying or becoming seriously ill from the virus.
“The potential risk we’re exposing ourselves to, you just don’t know,” he said. “You don’t know if it will be a 20 year old student versus an 80 year old grandmother who is going to end up dying or be severely disabled by this virus. It’s not something we know for sure.
Finkbeiner said he was confident in the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.
“The first chance I have and my family has to get the vaccine, we’re going to do it,” he said.
As for those who cared for him during his three month battle, Finkbeiner had only good things to say about the professionalism and level of care of the medical staff at St. Mary’s and Mary Free Bed.
Read more:
‘Encouraging’ trend lines show Michigan coronavirus numbers are moving in the right direction, state officials say
US orders 100 million more doses of Pfizer vaccine
Pizzeria, gas station, dentist among Michigan businesses fined for COVID-19 violations
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