A mild illness turned into a life-threatening COVID-19 battle that kept Andi's son Cory hospitalized at Pottstown Hospital for nearly five months. With the support and expertise of his care team, he made a remarkable recovery.
A Sudden Illness Turns Serious
Cory Heckman is back in his kitchen again, making handmade biscuits and sausage gravy – his specialty.
It’s a routine his mother, Andi Kelly, once wasn’t sure she would see again.
Cory, a 35-year-old Lower Alsace Township resident, spent 145 days at Pottstown Hospital after severe COVID-19 complications left him on a ventilator, in a medically induced coma, and requiring a tracheostomy tube.
During that time, Andi said hospital staff became a constant presence in his care, working with him day and night as his condition shifted in ways that were difficult to predict.
"They saved his life," she said. "I don’t know how else to say it. I’ll always be grateful for what they did for him."
What first seemed like a cold quickly became far more serious for Cory. After about a week, his breathing worsened, and a relative rushed him to Pottstown Hospital, where he was admitted immediately.
Andi said Cory’s condition was especially difficult because he has autism, which sometimes made it hard for him to explain how he was feeling. However, the doctors and nurses never stopped caring for him or trying to help, not for a single moment.
A Long and Uncertain Fight
At one point, doctors sedated Cory and placed him in a medically induced coma so his body could rest and fight the infection. He eventually required a tracheostomy tube to help him breathe. Much like the character M’Lynn Eaton in one of her favorite movies Steel Magnolias, Andi said she never left his bedside.
By late March, Andi said doctors prepared the family for the possibility that Cory might not recover. There had been few signs of improvement.
Even in those moments, she said, the staff never gave up, Andi remembered. They even nicknamed him "Purple Unicorn," because they believed he had a kind of "magic" inside him they couldn’t explain. If anyone could pull through, they told his mother, it was Cory.
"They all rallied around him and made sure he was okay," Andi said.
A few days later on April 2 — Cory’s birthday — something shifted.
"The nurses came and said, ‘I don’t think it’s time,'" she recalled. "And on his birthday, he came back. Can you believe it? It felt like a miracle. I had my son back."
A Hard-Won Recovery
"And that did it," Andi said. "I was in tears."
Today, Cory is back to doing the things he loves – cooking, taking walks around the neighborhood, and playing with his dogs, Luna and Wrench. He’s continuing to recover, using an oxygen tank to help breathe and attending appointments at Reading Hospital Rehabilitation at Wyomissing.
Hospital staff has been with him every step of the way, Andi said. "They nursing staff became my family. They’re always checking on him, always reaching out to see how he’s doing and what they can do to help," she said. "I tell them they’ve already done so much."
"Thank God for Pottstown Hospital, or my son wouldn’t be here."
