UNION, WV (WOAY) – A long time Monroe County paramedic is sharing her COVID-19 recovery story after being released from the hospital on Wednesday.
“I was tested at Raleigh General Hospital, I came home, and my family physician started treating me pretty aggressively at home, but then I continue to get worse,” Kelly Crosier said.
58-year-old Kelly Crosier was first diagnosed with the coronavirus on August 31, 2020. Before being released last Wednesday, Crosier spent nearly two weeks in the intensive care unit at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, after contracting the virus.
“I think that I caught it in-house from other employees. At that point, I had transported only a couple of COVID patients, and all times we were wearing full PPE,” Crosier said.
The ambulance crew that works out of Peterstown was down to a handful of workers just days before Crosier fell ill. More than half a dozen of them had gotten sick with the virus.
“This summer makes 41 years for me, and I have never experienced anything like this, not just as a first responder, but also as being a patient that ended up being really sick,” Crosier said.
Crosier said she believes the main reason she contracted the virus was due to the lack of PPE at the beginning of the pandemic. Crosier hopes the healthcare system is better prepared next time.
“I think overall, our system was not prepared for this pandemic as a whole.”
Crosier is recovering at home and hopes to get back in the ambulance soon.
