47 Days On Ventilator: 19-Year-Old COVID-19 Survivor Has Message

PALOS HILLS, IL — Jibriel Tawalbeh, 19, was the healthiest person in his family. The Stagg High School graduate had been a taekwondo national finalist and passed his well-child visits with flying colors. He was physically active, despite being a little overweight.

So, when the coronavirus began rearing its ugly head, the worst his mother thought could happen to her healthy son was on par with a bad flu.

“Of all the people I worried about getting critically ill in my family, Jibriel was the last person I was concerned about,” Elizabeth McKittrick said.

All that would change in the early days of the pandemic. Elizabeth and her husband, Ibrihim Tawalbeh, are both essential workers in the health care field.

Elizabeth worked the front line at an area hospital as a respiratory therapist taking care of COVID-19 patients. Tawalbeh managed a medicar transportation company. Both were exposed to people with the coronavirus.

In mid-April, Elizabeth came home with a rotten headache and discovered she could not smell an onion.

“I had worked three nights in a row, so I figured I was just tired,” Elizabeth said. “I felt like I was in a major car accident, but after two days I began to feel better.”

Elizabeth called the hospital where she worked and got a COVID-19 test. The test came back positive April 21.

Soon, other family members began falling ill — her husband, her 14-year-old daughter, her older son and his wife, and their 2-year-old daughter. Jibriel came down with a bad case of diarrhea and vomiting. Three days later, he began having difficulty breathing.

Jibriel parents dropped him off at Palos Community Hospital on April 26. He walked into the ER on his own and was given a COVID-19 test.

He tested positive.

“We thought we would be bringing him home, but they kept him at the hospital,” Elizabeth said. “I didn’t think he would be admitted, but he started to decline very quickly."

Because of the scarcity of COVID-19 tests during the early weeks of the pandemic, Elizabeth and Jibriel were the only members of the family who got tested. She believes the rest of her family had the coronavirus as well.

“Back then, if you had contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, doctors told you to stay home if you felt ill,” she said. “You were to assume you were positive and ride it out.”

Elizabeth also relapsed and began experiencing trouble breathing.

Within three days of being at Palos Hospital, Jibriel was in critical condition. He was intubated on a ventilator and transferred to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

At Christ Medical Center, Elizabeth said, the hospital was doubling up rooms in order to accept as many COVID-19 patients as possible. The family was not allowed to visit Jibriel, who was on a floor with other COVID-19 patients. Even though she was not permitted to visit her son, Elizabeth took a leave of absence to keep vigil for Jibriel at home.

Twice, Jibriel almost died after going into septic shock. The day he arrived at Christ Medical Center, Jibriel was wheeled into surgery to be put on a veno-venous ECMO machine. Considered the pinnacle of advanced life support, it involves a pump that pulls non-oxygenated blood through a special tube — or cannula — to a machine that removes the CO2, re-oxygenates it, then returns the blood to the patient’s vein. Used in acute respiratory cases, VV-ECMO allows the lungs to rest and recover.

When the ventilator and lung machine were not enough, Jibriel’s chest was cracked open. Another cannula was inserted into an artery to an aorta to support the heart with re-oxygenated blood.

For the next 45 days, Jibriel lay in a medically induced coma attached to three different machines, dreaming deep, vivid dreams. He later asked his mother if the family had traveled to Jordan for vacation.

“I did not remember any of the events that occurred while I was intubated,” he said. “I mostly had dreams, and that’s only thing that I remember — the dreams.”

By June, Jibriel finally turned a corner. He was taken off the ventilator but remained on the ECMO until mid-July. A stocky 6-footer, Jibriel’s weight dropped from 230 pounds to 170 pounds. His vocal cords and larynx were damaged from being intubated. He spoke in raspy whispers.

“We were super fortunate that we got to bring him home,” Elizabeth said. “Other families were not as fortunate as us.”

Jibriel was discharged from Christ Medical Center on Aug. 10. He was sent home with a hospital bed, commode, walker, wheelchair and oxygen. Most of the equipment has since been returned. He no longer needs the wheelchair to get around the house, but still uses it outside.

“He can’t walk a block without getting tired,” Elizabeth said. “His doctors expect him to make a full recovery, but it’s going to take time.”

Jibriel goes to therapy three times a week at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab Outpatient and Rehab Center in Burr Ridge. He cherishes the small pleasures from the months he missed, riding in a car with the windows down and feeling the fresh air on his face after weeks in a hospital room.

And taking a shower.

“I know it sounds ridiculous to say, but just being able to clean myself better than just wipes,” Jibriel said. “I’m mostly more happy to be able to see my little sister and baby niece again.”

As COVID-19 cases spike in young adults from superspreader events like parties and packed bars, Jibriel has a message for them:

“COVID-19 is not a joke and is not a hoax, unfortunately I had to face it first hand and I can safely say that it is a very deadly virus that is very real. So please, take the safety precautions. Wear a mask when you go out, if you are not afraid of the safety of yourself at least do it for the safety of others. Be safe, take precautions. If you don’t need to go outside then stay inside and find productive things to do around your home.”