Oregon Santa hospitalized, battling COVID-19

By Drew Marine

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    MILWAUKIE, Oregon (KPTV) — A well-known Milwaukie figure is hospitalized battling COVID-19.

Keith McDonley, otherwise known as the “Milwaukie Santa,” has been in the ICU for more than a month and on an ECMO machine for over two weeks.

For more than a decade, Keith collected food, toys and Christmas trees for those in need. FOX 12 interviewed him in 2015 about why he’s so compelled to help his community.

“There’s people out there who can’t have a tree and want a tree or are just down and out with no Christmas spirit,” McDonley told FOX 12 in 2015. “Try and put a smile on their face and when they leave here, they leave with more than a smile.”

Now, his family is asking for help as McDonley battles COVID-19.

“It’s terrible,” his mother Kelly McDonley said. “It’s scary because there’s nothing you can do.”

Kelly McDonley said it started at the end of June.

“He had kind of cold symptoms,” Kelly said. “Then from Sunday until the end of that week, he every day got sicker and sicker. Started running a fever, headache, body aches. In the middle of the night, he woke me up. He’s someone who doesn’t like hospitals or doctors or anything. So, if he’s asking me to take him, I know he’s sick.”

Kelly said he was sent home to monitor his oxygen but the next day, on the Fourth of July, he went back to the hospital and was admitted to the ICU shortly after. Throughout July, she said his body still struggled to retain oxygen.

“The day he was put on an ECMO was on his birthday and I just kept picturing like, a tombstone with the birth date and the death date being the same. You know, you can’t help it when it gets that serious,” she said. “He pretty much texted and called everybody he’s close to goodbye because he thought he was going to die that day.”

Kelly said Keith and their family aren’t vaccinated but after seeing Keith fight this, she had this to say to those who are on the fence about the vaccine.

“Getting Covid, even though we didn’t get it super bad, we got it bad enough. It makes you really think about it, that, you know if this vaccination can help us or anybody else not go through this, I think it would be a good thing to do,” Kelly said.

She said at last check, doctors are giving him a 50/50 chance but day by day he’s able to breathe a little bit more on his own. Kelly said Keith told her he wants to be vaccinated once he recovers.

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