[ad_1]
About a week after Patrick Hall was given medication to treat what he believed to be a sinus infection, he realized that something was wrong: He was not getting better.
Hall came home from work on June 29 and collapsed on the sofa, telling his wife, Jaime, that he was not feeling very well.
The next morning, he took a coronavirus test and received positive results. At the end of the week, he was rushed to the intensive care unit at Ochsner Medical Center and intubated after two days in the COVID observation ward.
Over the next month, Jaime Hall chronicled her husband’s decline with daily Facebook posts, describing his condition and treatment thoroughly and asking for prayers.
Patrick Hall passed away on August 5, surrounded by his family. He was 40 years old.
“A roller coaster is the only way I knew how to describe it,” said his widow. “We buckled up. Sometimes we had to tighten the seat belts a little tighter. We didn’t get down until the end.
Hall’s wife and two children, aged 21 and 17, also tested positive for the virus after she was admitted to hospital, although they are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.
While the diagnosis came as a shock, Jaime Hall said, one of the most painful parts of the past month was watching her protective giant husband deteriorate before his eyes. Patrick Hall was 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighed nearly 300 pounds – a tall man with a gentle mind, his family said.
“It’s like my big, strong husband is just this frail man lying in his bed,” Jaime Hall said, his voice breaking. “The virus has taken everything away from him.”
Patrick Hall was born in Baton Rouge, but spent his childhood and teenage years in Destrehan, Saint-Charles Parish, where he developed an active love of all things the outdoors. The middle child in a family of three boys, Hall was calm and close to his mother – though she said he could be a prankster too.
“He always checked on me and never wanted me to be alone,” said Cindy Oncale Hall, his mother. “When he was a friend to you, he was always a friend.
Patrick Hall attended Southeastern Louisiana University, where he met his wife, Jaime, in an AOL chat room. They found out that they were having a communication course together and were both deeply involved in Greek campus life; it wasn’t long before they fell in love.
While still in college, the couple had their first child, Ashlyn.
“This is where our lives changed forever,” said Jaime Hall. “She was a daddy’s daughter from day one.”
The two graduated, married and started life together at Central: they had another child, Landon, and Jaime Hall stayed home with the children while Patrick Hall began a career in finance. automobile.
For Patrick Hall, his family was everything. He taught his kids what he loved about the outdoors and sports, was always ready to throw the ball in the back yard, and even accompanied on trips to the beach with his wife and kids, even on trips to the beach with his wife and kids. he notoriously hated sand.
When the coronavirus arrived, Jaime Hall said, her husband was someone who didn’t necessarily believe they had anything to worry about. He was healthy and active, was only 40 – why would COVID-19 do anything to him?
“It shows that it can affect anyone,” said his wife.
For most of the painful month of his hospitalization, Hall’s family could not see him, due to the hospital’s precautions to stop the spread of the virus. They relied on Ochsner’s medical staff to fill them in on his contact details and began keeping a notebook by the phone so they could take notes of any developments.
“They worked tirelessly,” her mother said. “They cried next to us and laughed next to us. I have no doubt that they did all they could for him.
The children of the Hall also mobilized to help.
As her father lay in her hospital bed dying, Ashlyn Hall, 21, decided she had a chance to help others. Although her father did not respond positively to the convalescent plasma treatment for the virus – where blood is collected from people who have recovered from the coronavirus and then given to current patients – she figured someone else would benefit. .
She and her brother Landon – who had both recovered from mild cases of the virus – donated plasma for other patients.
“I couldn’t help my dad, but I could help other people,” Ashlyn Hall said. “So other people wouldn’t have to go through the things that we’ve been through.”
After Patrick Hall was hospitalized, Jaime Hall’s posts listing her husband’s treatments and condition began to grab the attention of thousands on Facebook. She said as her husband struggled to get home, prayers started pouring in.
“Patrick is just a middle class, average Joe,” she said. “He touched so many people. I believe Patrick’s purpose on this Earth was to bring people to prayer.”
To those whose loved ones are suffering in hospital from the virus, Jaime Hall says to never give up hope and trust God. It was the only thing that helped her family through the most difficult times of their lives.
“I’m not saying it’s easy because there are a lot of people saying how strong we are,” she said. “No. It’s God. It’s our faith. That’s how we go on.”
In the grief and pain of her family, Jaime Hall said, she prays for people who do not believe in taking precautions against the virus.
“The research has been available since March,” she said. “I respect people whatever their decision, whatever their political views, but it’s real. This virus will not go away after the election. The virus does not discriminate.”
[ad_2]
Source link