Ep 52: Rick Barde on Surviving and Recovering from COVID-19

Clear Choices Podcast

Over the past two years, we all probably know someone who had a mild case of COVID but how about someone who barely survived it? My guest today, Rick Barde, joins us to tell us about his experience surviving and recovering from COVID-19. Rick is a recently retired school teacher who spent nearly two months in the hospital battling this disease. His case was so severe, he was placed on ECMO (advanced life support equipment called Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) where 40% do not make it off and was placed in an induced coma to rest his lungs. He is truly thankful to be alive. He credits his recovery to all of the support he received from his wife, his school community, and the amazing nurses and doctors.

You will hear about his experience through the worst parts of this disease, his recovery that he is still dealing with today, how this has changed him, and what he wants others to learn from his experience.

Notable Quotes:

“When I know how many hundreds of thousands of people have died, and I didn’t, and mine was such a bad case, I am fortunate, I am thankful, I am grateful to anybody and everybody who has been a part of my recovery.”

“If I can impact one person to make a choice to better the world by taking the vaccine or wearing a mask or whatever it may be, then I feel I am doing my job. We have to have more people out there who are making a clear choice to wear a mask and get vaccinated. It’s the only way we are going to get through this. I have hope that we’ll get there.”

“It’s changed me in that I am much more grateful for life. I get emotional about how close I was to not making it.”

“If people are thinking about getting vaccinated, I say ‘ I had COVID and you do not want to get what I got.’ ”

In this episode, you will hear:

- What Rick went through and what he remembers while battling COVID

- His recovery and the symptoms he still deals with today

- How COVID has changed him

- What he wants others to learn from his experience

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