Palm Desert woman recounts the fight of her life while infected with Coronavirus

A Palm Desert woman is speaking out over her experience of being infected with Coronavirus. On June 7 Kathy Martin announced to friends and family that she was admitted to Eisenhower Health, after coming down with 'COVID pneumonia.' Martin characterized the sickness as the "worst illness I have ever been through."

"It started off with some back pain and some aches. I thought I was just having some normal back flare-up," Martin said.

Little did Martin know, she was in for the fight of her life.

"The pain started moving up into my lungs and when I would take a breath I would feel painful. I started off with light fever."

Martin is a physical therapist. She said she had seen a patient on May 24. A few days later she found out he had been taken to the hospital for shortness of breath. On May 28 she found out he tested positive for Coronavirus. Her job later told her to stay home, and to get tested.

"I went over to Eisenhower, in the parking lot there and I got a test that afternoon. The results came back two days later on Saturday, they came back negative."

Martin believes that the incubation period is when she got tested, which may be the reason that it did not show up positive.

Her symptoms began to worsen.

"As the week went on that started to escalate and I was starting to get higher fevers. I was taking you now a lot of Tylenol and Ibuprofen to try to keep the symptoms down so I think as the week went on the symptoms started getting worse- nausea, drive heaving, diarrhea, chills, body aches. And then the fever started."

Once it became too much to handle, Martin called 911 and was admitted to at Eisenhower Health. She described the first few days as excrutiating while she had to be put on oxygen for difficulty breathing.

When asked whether Martin feared for her life, she replied:

"I did. I actually went there that night, there was a time where I didn’t think I wasn’t going to make it through the night. 

Her thoughts began to spiral.

"I lost my mom and my brother and a close tennis coach of my son-- I lost them all to cancer and I remember being in the room and I was actually talking to them. I was telling them I thought we were going to be together that night and it was scary."

Despite thinking she couldn't go any longer, a glimmer of hope ignited a spark in Martin to keep on fighting.

"All of a sudden pictures of my son who his 21-- his name is Alex, started popping up in my head and even though my body at the time wasn’t fighting my mind started to. I lost my mom when I was in my early 20s and I just kept picturing him and I kept saying, 'I can’t leave him. I can’t.'"

The wheels started turning in Martin's mind, but that was only half the battle. She said the next day her doctor came into the room, and she could hardly open her eyes.

"He said, 'Kathy, you’re not thriving right now and I need you to start fighting.' I remember pushing the button on my bed to sit up and I looked in his eyes. I knew how serious he was and it was that day, that moment, I decided okay, physically I’m going to start fighting this."

Martin was hospitalized from June 7 to June 16. She forced herself to get up and walk around her room. Her doctor advised her to get active on social media. She then began updating friends and family via Facebook.

Martin expressed gratitude for the staff at Eisenhower Health, who she said, got her through the illness.

"I had a couple nurses-- Taylor and Robin-- they were each on a 12-hour shift and I had them both for my first 2 days and they were just so caring and compassionate and I always felt like I was in really good hands with them."

By the end of her stay, Martin recounted the day she was discharged from the hospital.

"It was one of the most amazing, touching moments of my life. As he took me out on the wheelchair, I think there were 30 or 40 staff members that all came out and started clapping for me and I just teared up like a baby and I put my hand on my heart and I told them that they saved my life," Martin said.

When asked whether Martin could have imagined this happening to her she responded: "I did because I work in health care I knew I was more at risk, but I think deep down you don’t think it’s going to happen to you until it does," Martin said.

Recovering from Coronavirus is an outcome thousands were unable to overcome. For Martin, it's a second chance at life.

"The staff at Eisenhower, they just deserve so much credit for what they do. They are a true heroes, and they are risking their lives."

Martin has since returned home to her dog, Snickers. Her son, Alex, currently lives in New York but they manage to talk through FaceTime often.

Martin said she still does not feel 100 percent, but she's getting there.

"I wake up still feeling kind of bad in the mornings in a cold sweat and I feel just very weak. I feel a little bit short of breath when I walk through the house but I think each day it’s also getting a little bit better."