SALT LAKE CITY – The first COVID-19 patient to be treated at the University of Utah Hospital said he was not afraid of dying but hoped to get through after his lungs stopped working.
© Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News
Keith Taylor, Utah National Guard, accepts an identification sticker from Steve Hampshire at a COVID-19 test site in the Utah State Fair Park in Salt Lake City on Friday, February 26, 2021.
75-year-old Neal Murphy believes he signed COVID-19 on a February 27, 2020 flight from California to Salt Lake City to visit his son who is a doctor at the university hospital. He said he was “too tired” to go to dinner that evening, and that morning his temperature reached 104.5 degrees.
I said to my wife, ‘This is not a cold. ‘A day later, they said this is COVID,’ Murphy recalled on a U. video production made to commemorate Murphy’s survival from COVID-19.
“It was the worst scenario,” he said, adding that he was immediately isolated in the hospital. Murphy was given supplemental oxygen and was eventually intubated and ventilated for five days. Once he was given a 3% chance of survival.
“I beat such chances, that’s not a problem,” he said. Murphy said he posted a picture of the late Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., On his hospital bed railing. “If he can survive five years of torture, I can go through this.”
Murphy’s son, Dr. Ryan Murphy said of his father’s situation, “There is nothing he can do … either he would survive or not.”
“It’s all about the fight, the fight – never give up, never give up. That’s his ethos, ”said the younger Murphy.
In total, the elderly Murphy, professor of dentistry in Cleveland, was hospitalized in Utah for 13 days.
“I was not afraid. I am 75 years old. I’ve been around a couple of times, ”he said. “There’s a point where you have to say, ‘I can’t do more.'”
Murphy said he was “reassured” by the U. staff.
“Miracles are supported by the dedicated health care professionals who cannot be denied,” he said. “They really are heroes. Without her I would be a dead man. “
The Utah Department of Health reported 570 new COVID-19 cases as well as five new deaths on Saturday.
The number of new cases has gradually decreased since the first of the year. The seven-day rolling average of those with confirmed cases is now 9.5%, with the average percentage of tests being 4.6%.
The state has administered nearly 26,100 doses of COVID-19 vaccine since Friday’s report, bringing the total number of fully vaccinated people in Utah to 304,168. According to the Department of Health, a total of 843,032 doses of vaccine have been administered in the state.
Utah has tested 2.24 million people for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including 7,052 since the report was released on Friday noon.
Currently, 194 people with COVID-19 have been hospitalized, 29 fewer than were reported a week ago.
The deaths reported on Saturday included a Salt Lake County woman older than 85 who was not hospitalized at the time of her death. a Salt Lake County woman aged 45 to 64 who was hospitalized; a Weber County man aged 45 to 64 who was hospitalized; a Salt Lake County woman aged 25 to 44 who was hospitalized; and a Uintah County woman aged 45 to 64 who was hospitalized.
The total number of lives lost to COVID-19 in Utah is 1,975 since the pandemic here a year ago.
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