MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — COVID numbers can feel like that, just numbers. But one Minnesota woman's story is much more than that.
Cathy Olson reached out to KARE 11 on our text line, with a heartfelt message of gratitude to the healthcare workers who saved her life.
And we just had to know more.
Olson said her symptoms started out like a cold, and then got worse as she started having respiratory issues.
Suddenly, she was a COVID-19 patient at Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater.
Olson said she didn't have a history of breathing problems, and remembers how scary is was when her husband had to drop her off at the ER.
"When you can't breathe? It is one of the worst experiences I've ever been through," Olson said.
"I actually maxed out all of their oxygen machines and so I was actually waiting. I was on a waitlist for a bed to open up at Regions."
Olson stayed for two nights before she was moved to Saint Paul.
"While they were in the process of transferring me, I did go into cardiac arrest," said Olson. "I didn't even remember that. I don't recall that at all. I didn't remember being transferred. So waking up in an environment where you have no idea where you're at, you see people walking around in these crazy COVID uniforms and you're like what is going on?"
About a week later Cathy would go home. She's thankful for God and the people who treated her.
"I can't thank them enough."