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Southern Indiana woman recovers from COVID after 18 days on ventilator

Erin Schneider's mother said the 31-year-old did not get vaccinated because "it was too new and she was worried." Now, she's recovering from an almost-deadly battle.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In Indiana, more than 1,900 Hoosiers have tested positive for COVID-19. As of Sunday, more than 1,400 were in the hospital.

Thirty-one-year-old Erin Schneider was one of 29 COVID patients being treated at Baptist Health Floyd on Monday. 

"All of her symptoms were severe," Schneider's mother, Melissa Conner, said. 

At first, Conner was her daughter's caretaker. After a fever of 105 degrees, constant nausea and low oxygen levels, she called 911.

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Erin was intubated at Baptist Health Floyd the next morning and was on a ventilator for 18 days. 

Now, her mom makes the same drive to the hospital about every day. She even sleeps there because she doesn't want Erin to spend a moment alone.

"She can't be left alone because she can't reach for a glass and take a drink herself. She's helpless right now," she said.

Credit: Melissa Conner
Erin Schneider, 31, was put on a ventilator for 18 days while she battled COVID-19.

When patients like Erin are put on a ventilator, they are often paralyzed. Days without moving muscles can require weeks of rehabilitation. For COVID-19 patients, ventilation can be the only option.  

When told Erin could be in rehabilitation for up to three months, her friend and coworker Stephanie Smith said, "I don't care if it's six months. I'm just glad that she is off the ventilator, that she's going to be fine, that she's going to recover fully from this."

Stephanie and Erin are both Scott County Probation Officers. Both were unvaccinated and tested positive around the same time, along with other coworkers.

Stephanie asked herself, "'If I got it again would I be like them?' It scared me to death so I got vaccinated right after the time frame that I could."

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Ammar Tayara is an infectious disease specialist in Southern Indiana. He spends his days helping COVID patients in the ICU. Typically, his patients are over 65, but that's changed over the past few weeks.

He said, "We're seeing younger people, people in their twenties sometimes. People in their 30s and 40s and 50s coming to the hospital sick, very sick."

He, along with Erin's mom, encouraged people to take every precaution. That means staying home when you feel sick, wearing a mask, social distancing, and getting vaccinated. 

It's a call health officials have been making for months, and now Erin's mother hopes her story will help people better understand the impact of COVID-19.

"Be careful," Melissa Conner said, "You can't be too careful with this."

Contact reporter Tom Lally at TLally@whas11.com or on Facebook or Twitter.  

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