KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - The story of what happened to the Brewster family of Kansas City, Kansas, may be as tragic as any in this pandemic that has taken thousands of lives.
Released by the Riverbend long-term care facility on April 3 -at the beginning of a massive coronavirus outbreak in the building - 88-year-old Carl Donald Brewster, a Korean War vet, died at his home two days later. A test after his death showed he had COVID-19.
Soon, his son and daughter-in-law, who had driven him home and taken care of him after his release, tested positive. Janis Brewster suffered severely from the virus and spent nearly two months in the hospital, kept alive for a period of time by a ventilator, as family and friends prayed her failing kidneys would improve.
But if there is a good story in all of this, it is hers. An “absolute miracle,” her husband Steve told The Kansas City Star.
“There for awhile it just seemed so grim,” he said. “Of course everyone was praying hard. I’m going to say that’s what made the difference.”
That and the convalescent plasma therapy she received, which allows people suffering from severe coronavirus to receive plasma from those who have recovered from it.
Janis Brewster didn’t feel strong enough to talk about her journey. She’s with her family, getting hugs from her two children and four grandchildren and quizzing her husband of 48 years about a month of her life she can’t remember.
Steve Brewster relives it all, still unable to fathom everything that has happened in the past 12 weeks.
Losing his father. Getting COVID-19 himself and struggling with the guilt after Janis bore the brunt of the illness. Being told multiple times that he may also lose the woman he met when both were in high school and then lying awake at night wondering when the nightmare would end.
And now, helping his best friend regain her strength and separate what is real from what may be a lingering hallucination from a virus that took a near-crushing toll on her body.
“It’s been a life changer for both of us,” Steve Brewster said. “It’s like we realize, No. 1, how fragile life is. And how things you take for granted can all disappear really quickly. “
It was late April, into early May, when the words of the doctor replayed in Steve Brewster’s mind.
Fourteen days. After 14 days on a ventilator, a patient’s recovery is difficult.
The Brewsters long-time family doctor - Bradley Appl, who Steve says “we owe everything” - explained that Janis could be on the ventilator longer, but the road ahead would be rougher.
Diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs, Janis first went on the ventilator the morning of April 21. Two days after that, she received the convalescent plasma therapy that Appl recommended and got approved.
At that time, the physician cautioned Steve that progress wouldn’t be overnight. It would be slow.
Steve didn’t realize how slow. Janis’ time on the ventilator “was the darkest days of the whole thing,” he said.
Before she could be taken off, the medical staff said the mother of two would need to be able to follow simple commands. They began asking her to wiggle her fingers or wiggle her toes.
For days, the medical staff saw nothing.
On May 2, Janis’s 11th day on the ventilator, the Brewster’s daughter - Emerald Given - updated friends and family on Facebook. It’s something she did after her grandfather died and then ever since her mom was hospitalized.
“They said today she was opening her eyes and looking around a little bit but she wasn’t able to respond to commands,” Given wrote. “They are hoping that she will become coherent and be able to follow simple commands soon. Thank you all for the prayers. We appreciate the kindness. Faith will get us through.”
Her mom’s kidneys had completely shut down while on the ventilator. Her blood pressure was up to 190.
On Day 14, the medical staff tried again with the commands.
Wiggle your fingers or wiggle your toes.
Nothing.
That’s the day, Steve says, when he began to think the worst.
“In cold terms,” he said, “the doctor gave her a 15% chance.”
He lay awake that night, barely sleeping, as he and many others continued to pray.
The next day, Day 15 on the ventilator, the routine was the same for the medical staff at Providence Medical Center. Check the vitals. Search for progress.
Try the commands again.
Wiggle your fingers or wiggle your toes.
And there it was. A wiggle of her toes.
Steve talked to the nurse soon after.
“They didn’t say she wiggled her toes, they said, ‘She’s off the ventilator,’” Steve Brewster recalled of the conversation. “I went from the lowest low to the highest high.”
He was cautioned that his wife was confused, something that’s common when someone comes off a ventilator after so long.
Many of the questions the medical staff asked her, she nailed. Like, “What year is it?’”and “What’s your name?”
But then there was this question: “Do you know where you’re at?”
“In my boyfriend’s bedroom,” she answered.
“When he told me that, I said, ‘Who’s this boyfriend? We’ve been married 48 years,’” Steve said. “He never did get me that answer.”
Finally, a moment of levity. And hope.
The real recovery began.
On May 20, more than five weeks after testing positive for COVID-19, Janis Brewster finally got her first negative result. Six days later, she tested negative a second time.
The intensive therapy and road back were next. She would go to two more hospitals for rehab. She’d work to sit up in bed, then to move herself to the side of the bed to stand up.
Then walk. And eat more than pureed food.
Her husband, daughter and son, Silver, were still unable to visit her because of the virus, but they received daily updates as rehab continued. And they’d talk on the phone when they could.
In early June, the three were able to see Janis through a window at the rehab center.
“We got to wave at her,” Steve said. “But we kind of have a regret there.”
Janis saw her family and started to get out of bed to go toward them. After they motioned her to lie back down, she waved at them to come inside.
“We were talking to her on a cell phone,” her husband said. “She did not understand why we couldn’t come in there. … She had this distant look like she was on a different planet - it was really sad.”
On June 10, Given was able see her mom face to face for the first time in weeks. She described that as “one of the best days of my life.”
As Janis Brewster worked every day to be strong enough to go home, the family and their attorney say the question always lingered: Why would Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation let Carl Brewster go home without testing him?
The night Brewster did go home the Unified Government announced that Riverbend had 17 residents and two employees test positive for the virus. Since then, cases have risen to a total of 132. And 36 residents have died.
The family still doesn’t know if Carl Brewster is represented in that count.
“We believe that with absolute certainty that negligence occurred,” said Rachel Smith, the Brewsters’ attorney. “It endangered so many people that it’s frightening and appalling.
“It started when they let a sick employee infect their residents and it continued when they sent an infected resident into the community, into a car. Putting somebody in a vehicle, and sending them home knowing that the caregivers would then be exposed is unacceptable.”
Before her mom came home a little over a week ago, Given organized a surprise.
Through Facebook she sent a message to all the family members and friends who had wanted to send cards and messages and flowers during her time in the hospital. Because of COVID, none of that was allowed.
But now they could, Given told them.
Cards and plants, flowers and donations came from all over. That helped Given create a Celebration Garden in the Brewster’s backyard.
“After I told her about it, I was able to show her!!” Given said in an email to The Star. “The day she got to come home from the hospital was another day that will forever be remembered as one of the greatest days of my life!!”
Janis Brewster takes more medication than she ever has. Two pills address the high blood pressure, which before COVID-19 she never had.
Her hands severely shake, another thing that’s new. Doctors said as she gets stronger that should get better. And she still has questions for her husband.
Soon after she became coherent, Janis was convinced that she had been in three or four different jails. It wasn’t like it was from a dream, but more of a memory of a lived experience, Steve said.
She also thought that one of her nephews had died in a car accident. And that her brother had come and taken her car.
“To her, it all happened,” Steve said. “In her mind, it’s that real.”
He assures her that none of that happened. And he answers any question she has.
“I don’t think we’re 100% out of the woods yet,” Steve said. “Until she’s out swimming and running, we’ve got a ways to go, let’s just say that.”
Steve asked his wife if there was anything she wanted to say, anything she’d like added to a story about her recovery.
“She wanted to thank all of her friends and family for all the support and prayers and gifts and cards,” Steve said. “And especially thanks to the medical community, the doctors and nurses, for saving her life.”
In recent weeks, once he himself was out of quarantine, Steve Brewster has gone to Maple Hill Cemetery several times to visit his dad’s grave. Carl Brewster is there alongside Steve’s mom, the late Beulah Brewster.
When Janis’ health was so dire, Brewster bought a couple of plots for the two of them just down the hill from there.
If the coronavirus - and the past 12 weeks of battling it -has taught him anything, it’s that nothing is guaranteed. Not even tomorrow.
“We all know that, but when you experience it, it becomes very real,” Brewster said. “It’s a temporary existence we have.”
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