Meet The Florida Coach Who Fought To Beat Covid And Now Has A Message For Everyone Who Didn’t Get The Vaccine

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“I was extremely scared,” Greear said.

He didn’t understand what was happening to him. He was a 42 year old elementary school coach who was athletic and in good health. And now he was having trouble breathing, had a fever, and his fingers had turned blue. He thought of his two sons, Matthew, 16, and Ryan, 12, and his wife, Stephanie.

Describing those moments recently, Stephanie Greear broke down in tears. In the emergency room, she had feared the worst, she recalls.

“I kept thinking, ‘Oh, my God. What if this is the last time they (her sons) saw their dad?'” Said Stephanie.

It was the start of a 72-day battle with Covid-19 for the Greear family. Terry says he doesn’t remember many details because his condition deteriorated quickly. But the anguishing moments are forever etched in Stéphanie’s mind. That night, she became mom and dad for her children.

All the while, Terry fought for his life.

Terry Greear took this selfie on day one of his 72-day hospital battle with Covid-19.

“She’s a superhero,” said Terry. “She was my superhero.”

As Terry returns to teaching on Tuesday, his family want to share their roller coaster of pain, they told CNN, to try and save others from going through the kind of agony they’ve been through – all the more. As average daily coronavirus cases have increased eight-fold in Florida in the last month, a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University shows.
The message from the Greear family: Get vaccinated.

“God … please save him”

It was mid-January 2021. The Greears, who are die-hard Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans, were hoping the Bucs would make it to the Super Bowl. And Terry and Stephanie couldn’t wait to do something fun and exciting for their 20th birthday. The family was taking precautions against Covid-19, with both parents planning to be vaccinated as soon as it was available for people like them in their quarantine.

But one night, Terry, who had been called Coach Beard since one of his kindergarten students struggled to pronounce Greear, was heading for the door to coach a high school football game when he felt ill.

“I didn’t feel well,” he recalls. “My body was hot.”

Terry had a fever, he said, so he stayed home after the game and was tested for Covid-19 the next day. He tested positive.

“Everything will be fine”, remembers Stephanie having said to Terry. “You’re going to be sick for seven to ten days. Everything will be fine.”

But within days, the healthy 42-year-old elementary school coach passed out, his fingers turned blue and he was rushed to the emergency room. He was then transferred to an intensive care unit.

Every time Stephanie’s phone rang, she would experience panic, not knowing the type of news that was waiting for her on the other end of the line, she said.

“I held my breath the whole time,” said Stephanie. “I never knew what they were going to tell me.”

Terry Greear's iconic beard was shaved in the hospital. He lost 50 pounds.
The worst phone call came at 5 a.m. on January 24, when she learned that her husband was intubated and placed in a medically induced coma, she said.

“It was the worst phone call I have ever received in my life. I couldn’t believe this had happened,” said Stephanie. “I asked the doctors and nurses if he could hear me. She (the doctor) said, ‘Go talk to him. He might be able to hear you. We don’t know.'”

Stéphanie remembers the sounds of machines all around him. She broke down in tears as she described how she prayed over her body, then played her favorite music – reggae rock – hoping she would muffle the sounds of the machines.

“I asked God to please save him,” said Stephanie.

“I don’t remember because I was out”

Students and staff decorated Terry’s school office with posters that read “We ️ Coach Beard”, “We Miss You” and “Best Coach Ever!” “

Physical education teachers have designed “#CoachBeard” t-shirts that anyone can wear.

And Stephanie filled her hospital room with photos of family and friends. She wanted doctors and nurses to know that he was a teacher, a father and a husband and that he was loved, she said.

Terry Greear remembers seeing this poster with pictures of friends and family when he regained consciousness.

“Every time I came or woke up I saw pictures, and the first picture I saw was this heart that said ‘We love you’,” said Terry. “It relieved me a bit. Knowing that they are not physically there but that I can see them.”

Over the days and weeks, Greear’s iconic beard has been shaved. He lost 50 pounds. His lungs collapsed twice. He was placed on a ventilator, feeding tube, and lung bypass machine.

“I don’t remember because I was away,” he said.

He missed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Super Bowl victory. He missed the 20th birthday he was hoping for. The memories of her 43rd birthday are very thin: patchy memories of the balloons his wife says she delivered to her hospital room.

But Stephanie remembers every twist in her condition, especially when she felt she had to explain the seriousness of Terry’s condition to their children.

“The worst part was telling my kids that their father might not come home. And to think that they hadn’t even really been able to say goodbye to him,” said Stephanie, in tears. to the eyes. “It was, it was hard. And he’s my partner in life. It was, it was unimaginable for me to think of living without him.”

Stephanie Greear wears her husband's wedding ring around her neck as he fights Covid-19.

“I had to start fighting”

Terry had to question himself to fight Covid-19. He thanks Stéphanie for helping him tap into his competitive instincts and bringing him back to battle.

“My wife said to me, ‘You have to do this,'” said Terry. “Something happened where I must have started to fight. And I fought hard.”

After about two months, he turned the corner. Terry was beating Covid-19, but now his body was so weak he couldn’t do the basic chores.

“Trying to put on a sock with both hands was impossible. There was no way in the world I could do it,” said Terry. “My brain says: this is what you are supposed to do. But my body says: no, you can’t.”

Terry entered an intensive rehabilitation program where he relearned how to perform basic tasks, such as dressing, washing dishes, walking, and getting in and out of a car, he said.

“I want (ed) to do normal things,” Terry said.

But being home after hospital was anything but normal. He relied on an oxygen tank and a walker. Walking from his front door to the mailbox was exhausting, he said, and he had to sit down, rest and check his oxygen levels.
The Greear family wears their #CoachBeard t-shirts after Terry Greear defeats the coronavirus.

‘To get vaccinated’

Today Terry’s beard is back and the oxygen machine is gone. He passed the walker down to his grandmother. And if he can walk around the block without running out of steam and even play a little basketball, he doesn’t feel 100%.

“I want to run, but I’m afraid to go for a run,” said Greear. “I’m still waiting to find out where my lungs are at this point.”

His goal is to run a 5K in November.

Slowly, he and his family are trying to make up for lost time – the 72 days he spent in the hospital. To relive the moment the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, they hosted a Super Bowl party at home. Reliving their 20th birthday will have to wait, Terry said, until he feels better.

But one thing must not wait, he said. This is a message he has for all who will listen to him:

“Get vaccinated,” said Terry. “I don’t want someone else’s family to have to go through what my family has been through. No one’s wife or husband needs to tell their kids that maybe mommy or daddy won’t come home. not at home.”

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