Local ER doctor spent 3 weeks on ventilator battling COVID-19
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ST. LOUIS, MO (KMOV) — After a month-long battle with COVID-19, a St. Louis area emergency room doctor is sharing his story in hopes spreading awareness about how serious the virus is.
Dr. Larry Prablek has spent years working at Mercy Hospital Lincoln in Troy, Missouri. Prablek first contracted the virus back in March and was admitted to the hospital after getting home from one of his shifts.
“I had worked a shift in the emergency room and I just couldn’t breathe I was clutching at my chest about ready to pass out,” Prablek said. The 58-year-old with mild asthma was admitted to Mercy Hospital in Creve Coeur. About 10 hours later, Prablek said he was in a coma, on a ventilator, unsure if he’d ever see his four children again.
“The last thing I said to the intensivist is that I don’t want to die,” Prablek said.
After 22 days on the ventilator, Prablek said he started improving. He’d lost nearly 50 pounds and all of his muscle mass. Prablek said he was so weak he could barely stand.
“The first time I stood up I couldn’t stand up and when I took four steps my heart rate would go to 160 and the alarms would go off and my color would change and I thought ‘how am I going to do this the rest of my life?’” Prablek said.
Determined to treat patients again, Prablek spent months in rehab working to regain his mobility. In June, he started working out with his trainer, Dominic, at Life Time in Frontenac and regained strength. Months later, Prablek is back at work and said he feels stronger than he did pre-COVID. He said he has an incredible sense of empathy for his COVID patients and a newfound appreciation for his career.
“It’s real. Wear a mask, social distance. It’s real and it can kill but it doesn’t have to. We can beat this.”
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