'I was stubborn': 27-year-old spends 18 days in coma fighting COVID-19
Cheyne Satter spent 18 days in a COVID-19-induced coma at St. Anthony Hospital.
Cheyne Satter spent 18 days in a COVID-19-induced coma at St. Anthony Hospital.
Cheyne Satter spent 18 days in a COVID-19-induced coma at St. Anthony Hospital.
Eighteen days in a coma. Twenty-four days on a ventilator. Thirty-seven days in the hospital.
Nurses are calling Cheyne Satter a miracle after he beat COVID-19.
A month ago, he was at an Oklahoma hospital against COVID-19.
Satter is now home.
"How do we get a vaccine within three months? That's what terrified me," Satter said, admitting he didn't believe in the COVID-19 vaccine. "I did not. I was stubborn. I won't lie, extremely stubborn. I was the guy, like everybody else, 'If I would have gotten it by now, I would have got it.'"
That belief changed 37 days ago.
"It hit me like a semi down the highway," Satter said.
He spent 18 days in a COVID-19-induced coma at St. Anthony Hospital. He miraculously woke up after flatlining multiple times.
"Whenever I came to, it was different. I don't know. It felt different. It felt like I lived multiple lives before I came back," Satter said.
In those days, Satter relearned how to talk, walk and eat.
"I lost 30 pounds of muscle. I am weak," he said. "I'm shocked to know I'm a survivor. I survived COVID."
Satter wouldn't be a survivor without his doctors and nurses.
"Thank you. Just, you guys are outstanding. You saved my life," he said.
Satter still has a feeding tube and a tracheostomy tube — both are expected to come out in a week.
"I still got a family I want to raise. I got a wife I want to be around," he said. "My little boy, I want to watch grow up and graduate. There's a lot of life I still want to experience before, you know, it ends."
Satter will live to celebrate his 28th birthday next month.
"I'm getting my first vaccine shot," he said. "I don't want to go through this again."