Nevada’s 1st coronavirus patient released from hospital after coma

Nearly two months after testing positive, and three weeks since waking from a coma, the first coronavirus patient in Nevada has been released from the hospital.

Ronald Pipkins, 55, was wheeled out of the VA Medical Center in North Las Vegas on Monday to a series of cheers from the staff.

“You take care, sir!” one worker shouted.

“Eat a lot of food that you like!” another said.

Then more chants:

“You’re going to miss us!”

“You made it out of here!”

“Number one,” he said, in a voice muffled by his surgical mask.

He held up his index finger as his wheelchair was lifted into a van taking him to a local rehabilitation facility.

‘It took me by storm’

Pipkins began experiencing symptoms in mid-February, when he visited Seattle with his son, Ronald Jr., to check out the 17-year-old’s future school at Central Washington University.

The last few nights he was there, he began to feel cold and weak and had a hard time breathing. When he tried to exercise, he struggled to complete his regimen. He dropped six pounds in four days.

The former Marine Corps private was admitted to the VA center for pneumonia on March 2.

After developing a fever as high as 107, he was tested for COVID-19, and within 24 hours, his results came back as presumptive positive.

He spent much of the last month on a ventilator in a medically induced coma while battling the illness.

Since regaining consciousness and undergoing two consecutive negative COVID-19 tests in early April, Pipkins has done intense occupational and physical therapy as well as breathing exercises.

“My recovery has been really strong,” Pipkins said in an interview with the VA. “It’s all coming together, and once I get to rehab, I know that I’ll pick up the pace.”

Pipkins’ story has inspired staffers at the hospital, the community and veterans alike, and it even struck a chord with Gov. Steve Sisolak, who called him Friday after his story appeared in the Review-Journal.

“It kind of gives me chills that I’m popular because I’m alive,” Pipkins said. “I hope that maybe I can inspire people to understand how serious this virus is. It took me by storm.”

Pipkins said he appreciates the life-saving care he received.

“It was kind of frightening to feel so hopeless, but I’m grateful that I’m at the VA, because the people here waited on me hand and foot,” he said. “I made a lot of friends. I don’t know all their names, but I would like to know them, because they were a part of me getting to where I am today.”

When Pipkins woke up from the coma, he couldn’t walk or talk. He said he still struggles to maintain stamina.

He urges the public to listen to the medical professionals and not to take the disease lightly.

“Put on the mask. Going to work is not as important as living,” he said. “It’s better to be broke and alive than to have money and be dying.”

Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @ByBrianaE on Twitter.