US man Lawrence Nokes, 69, woke up from a coma on April 10, about 11 days after he was admitted to Carroll Hospital Center and intubated. Nokes, who worked as a nursing assistant at Pleasant View Nursing Home at Mt. Airy, Maryland, had tested positive for the virus and was put on a respirator as he was unable to breathe on his own.
Nokes had been tending to patients at the nursing home days before 84 out of the 95 residents tested positive for COVID-19, The Washington Post reported.
When he was taken out of the respirator, the only person Nokes asked for was his wife Minnette. Doctors hesitated as Nokes persisted with his request to meet his wife. Little did he know that Minnette had died in her sleep on April 7, a day before her 72nd birthday.
After her husband was admitted, Minnette, his wife of 24 years had started feeling very tired and was under quarantine. She was posthumously tested positive for the virus.
When Nokes found out about his wife’s death, Noke’s breathing started getting raspier. He sent for his stepdaughter and asked healthcare workers to let him sign a do-not-resuscitate order from. He died on April 15.
Nokes also called his children and grandchildren, gave them instructions on what to do with his belongings and told them he loved them. He even apologised to another stepdaughter and said that it was his fault his wife got sick.
