Health Team

Woman sees remarkable recovery from coronavirus

One month after Geraldine Keith arrived, nurses wheeled her down a corridor at UNC Rex Hospital lined with staff cheering her like the champion she is.

Posted Updated

By
Bryan Mims
, WRAL reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — A coma never induces a smile. Geraldine Keith, whose smile can pop off your screen, lay there for days. Expressionless. Wordless.

And then, her eyes opened.

"I remember having tubes in me," Keith said.

Geraldine Keith's remarkable recovery

Where was she? Who was she? It took some time: "just being aware and alert to who I was," she said.

She was hooked to a ventilator at UNC Rex Hospital.

Her son Brandon Keith drove her there on March 30 after the fall.

Brandon Keith said, "I just heard this loud bang."

"I remember walking down the hall and losing my balance and really, that's the last thing I remember," Geraldine Keith says.

Brandon Keith called an ambulance. Geraldine Keith is 59. She has Type 2 diabetes. Paramedics took her vitals, but she slept in her own bed that night in Knightdale.

Still, she kept coughing and coughing.

"She couldn't hardly talk without coughing. Like every word. Like she couldn't breathe. It was scary," said Brandon Keith. So he drove her to UNC Rex.

Given her symptoms and her diabetes, she was tested for coronavirus.

Yes, she had it.

Brandon Keith couldn't visit her. Nobody could, and especially not Brandon Keith Jr.

Geraldine Keith with her family at the Monster Jam weeks before she got sick.

Geraldine Keith glows, "I have the most beautiful grandson you'd ever want to see." Two years old. Nana had to get better for the most beautiful grandson you'd ever want to see.

"I still got a lot of grandmah-ing left to do. That was my primary, ok, get up and get out of here," Geraldine Keith says.

Geraldine Keith was getting out of the hospital.

One month after she arrived, nurses wheeled her down a corridor at Rex lined with staff cheering her like the champion she is.

At the front door, a Rex employee named Eugene Taylor serenaded her.

Everyone at Rex deserved to celebrate, and to be celebrated.

"I was extremely moved, and even now, just thinking about it. It's moving because there were so many people who worked so hard on my behalf. It's amazing," said Geraldine Keith.

Brandon Keith says, "I just cried and cried and cried. I was so happy."

A victory can sure induce a smile. Geraldine Keith is smiling again, and we're all smiling with her.

Geraldine Keith

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