MATHEWS COUNTY, Va. (WAVY) — One month ago on Tuesday, Mathews County resident Peggy Gallagher entered Riverside Walter Reed Hospital in Gloucester County diagnosed with COVID-19.
In the month since, two times the choice was considered to remove her from life support. But they didn’t.
Her husband Kevin calls it “a miracle — no doubt about it.”
“She is my best friend, and always will be,” Kevin Gallagher said during a Facetime interview from his Mathews County home.
They’ve been married 48 years.
The Gallaghers have two children, and hands down, no question, they are very much in love.
“I need her. I want her. I love her, I can’t say it any other way,” Kevin said.
The fact is, COVID-19 paid a visit to the Gallaghers.
“She wouldn’t want to continue in the situation she is in,” Kevin said.
Problems first began March 13 when Peggy — who Kevin says is the glue of the family — had a possible sinus infection. Kevin took her to Riverside Walter Reed Hospital in Gloucester.
“I asked her if she wanted to go back to the hospital and she said ‘no,’” Kevin told us.
However, overnight her medical condition got worse. She had weakness and coughing. They went back to the hospital on March 14, one month ago, and that’s where she’s been ever since — attached to a ventilator.
“I thought I was going to lose her March 17,” Kevin added.
Peggy tested positive for coronavirus, the results came back March 23 on her 69th birthday.
“I was told I needed to go to the hospital the next day to be tested myself.” Kevin tested positive, he said, but “I had no effects, no fever, no cough, I had nothing.”
Peggy was on a ventilator had severe medical complications. Days turned to weeks. April 1 was the worst day.
“Based on her condition at the time with the internal bleeding — we didn’t know where the internal bleeding was from — and she had a second lung collapse,” he said.
On April 3, Kevin thought it might be time to end life support and remove the ventilator.
“She wasn’t responding to treatment, and maybe it was time.”
On Monday, April 6, Kevin called family and friends to pray, but a doctor convinced Kevin it was not her time. Kevin had hope, but two days later on April 8, there was another tough decision. A doctor and nurse told Kevin his “wife has made it clear to us she wants to terminate,” Kevin recalled.
At that point, Kevin brought a picture of their granddaughter Amelia to Peggy’s bedside.
“And the doctor asked her ‘Do you want to terminate?’ She said no. She shook her head no. She still can’t vocalize yet,” Kevin said.
Kevin thinks Amelia’s picture gave Peggy an additional reason to live.
“Most people with the disease have a ventilator between 5 and 12 days. She has been there four weeks,” Kevin added.
The family doesn’t want to release pictures of her, but Peggy is surviving, and Kevin says her ventilator is now in “assist mode.”
“My wife is coherent. She knows me upon sight. She recognized a picture of her granddaughter, and I can’t put it in any other way, but to say it is a miracle,” Kevin said.
Kevin says the prayers were answered in that ICU hospital room.
Kevin wants others to know there is hope, don’t give up no matter what while fighting the coronavirus.
“I just want people to know there is hope with this disease. It may take longer than what they think. Right now, we are heading toward a speech therapist. She is supposed to go to rehab in a week, and it might take me another six weeks to get her home, but she will be home for our anniversary,” he said.
Peggy is now listed in fair condition as of Tuesday. She was given a coronavirus test last week, which came back negative. Her ventilator is in “assist mode,” which means it will only help her breathe if she does not on her own.
She will take another coronavirus test, and if she passes that one, then she can go to rehab.
Kevin’s message from what he’s seen from Peggy: “Don’t ever give up.”
