Gaylord Speciality Healthcare News

Florida man back home after traveling 1,000 miles north for COVID-19 treatment - Gaylord

Written by Kathy Kraines | October 21, 2021

WESH.com
By Michelle Meredith
HARTFORD, Conn. — Robby Walker is a COVID-19 survivor. The Florida man is still recovering.

Walker's COVID-19 journey took him 1,000 miles north to Connecticut. He and his family live in Citrus County on Florida's west coast. In July he got COVID-19 and became very sick.

He needed a special device called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, which pumps oxygen into your blood. He called all over Florida and the country trying to get him into a hospital.

Family members say he was repeatedly denied because he had been intubated too long.

A doctor all the way in Hartford, Connecticut, saw a story posted on Facebook and invited him to receive treatment at their facility, St. Francis Hospital.