Woman recovers from covid after spending 200 days hospitalized

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The 67-year-old Ann Arbor resident and her husband began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms after a trip to Palm Springs, California. Both tested positive on March 31. While her husband's symptoms were mild, Hair developed a fever and cough, and four days later began vomiting.


On April 3, she was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with ischemic colitis, also known as dead gut, caused by reduced blood flow to her large intestine from COVID-19.

Doctors prepared Hair for emergency surgery the following day.

Dr. Philip Choi, a pulmonologist on Hair’s team at Michigan Medicine, said surgeons had to remove part of her colon. After surgery, she was totally dependent on a ventilator for months as her body struggled to fight off multiple infections and complications brought on by the complex surgery and her weakened immune system.

Hair's condition worsened, with new problems arising each day in a new organ. While hospitalized, she had infections in her chest and belly, pneumonia in her lungs, and became septic when her kidneys started to fail, Choi said.

Her family was called into the hospital three times to say goodbye, each time doctors fearing she was at the end of her life.

“And then she would bounce back,” Flucht said. “Her friends had a little joke that Dee just wanted to see her family.”


In June, two months after Hair was admitted to the hospital, she tested negative for COVID-19 twice. She was moved to the regular ICU and by this time, the hospital had loosened visitor restrictions and one family member a day was able to visit.

Hair finally began getting better. Her kidneys started to heal, Choi said, and she no longer needed dialysis. She left the ICU to go to the main hospital, where her lungs and mental status began to gradually improve.

Hair was wheeled out of the hospital Thursday morning. She was greeted by friends and family, including her grandchildren, donning masks and holding posters displaying colorful messages of love. Many held back tears.

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