Louisville COVID-19 survivor applauded leaving hospital after 30 days on ventilator

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - LaTranza Hicks of Louisville’s first symptoms of COVID-19 were a headache and fatigue.

Those seemingly small symptoms came several weeks ago, before she was diagnosed with pneumonia and was ultimately hooked up to a ventilator for a month.

Hicks said waking up in the intensive care unit at UofL Hospital was terrifying.

“Very scary," she said. "I didn’t know what was going on. For the longest [time], it was just weird. I thought that, at first, I actually thought I was kidnapped at first. 'Cause I was coming out of all this stuff, didn’t know where I was, [who was] feeding me, people asking me questions, who I was, where I worked. It was just very scary at first.”

The entire unit that worked with Hicks sent her home with a standing ovation, and one of her nurses told WAVE 3 News she is very dear to their hearts.

“We’ve been doing this, I would say, seven weeks now on our floor, we’ve been seeing [COVID-19 patients],” UofL Hospital Nurse Manager Amy Jo Devault said. “And she was one of our first, and so our nurses, our respiratory therapists, we’ve seen that full progression, and so she is near and dear to our hearts.”

Hicks said the first thing she’s going to do once she’s completely healed is see her family by way of social distancing. She’s currently undergoing physical therapy at Frazier Rehab Institute.