COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio veteran spent more than two months in the hospital after getting COVID-19.
Marshall Porter, 46, lives in Mechanicsburg, OH. At the end of April, he said he noticed he wasn't feeling well.
"I started to feel really fatigued and tired. A day later, I developed a cough. Then, all of a sudden, I couldn't breathe," Porter said.
Porter's wife took him to Memorial Hospital in Marysville. Porter said doctors diagnosed him with COVID-19 and he was transferred to the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.
Porter said at one point, he was on a ventilator for three weeks.
"There were three days that I thought I was going to die," he said. "I was having horrible trouble breathing and I laid back in my hospital bed ... and I just waited to die. I thought that was the end. Then, obviously, I got better."
Porter said he eventually got off the ventilator and received plasma treatment. Although he started feeling better, he said he then had a stroke. Porter said he spent a total of 61 days in the hospital.
Porter is now home continuing to recover, but he said he owes the medical professionals at Ohio State, particularly Dodd Rehabilitation Hospital, for their care. He also wanted to thank his family, friends and community for their continued support.
"I can't explain it, but I could feel the positivity. It really pushed me. Every day I was like, 'Today is going to get better. I've got to get home,'" Porter said.
Porter said he wanted to share his story to help others.
"I was in the military - the Navy. Nobody gets left behind." he said. "I am the face of what you do not want to go through. Wash your hands. Wear your mask. Keep the social distancing up ... I don't want to see anybody else go through what my family and myself had to go through."