Washington D.C. Nurse Recovering From COVID-19 Released From Johns Hopkins After Over 100-Day Stay
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It's a powerful story of recovery; a nurse out of Washington D.C. and a COVID-19 survivor has been receiving treatment at Johns Hopkins for over 100 days.
On Friday, she was released from the hospital.
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For the past 40 years, 60-year-old Sharon Tapp has been taking care of patients as a nurse and was treating COVID-19 patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington D.C. right up until she herself was diagnosed on March 18.
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"I was feeling very short of breathe at work, and I was feeling very fatigue, so I decided the next day to call in and I took myself over to suburban hospital," Tapp said.
Within 10 days, Tapp's condition worsened, so she was transferred to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore where she spent two months in a medically induced coma.
"I was on ECMO for over a month and medevaced here and everything," Tapp said.
Tapp arrived at the hospital on a tracheal tube, needing complete assistance to function.
"I was on a vent, I was on dialysis, all my organs was failing," Tapp said.
Throughout Tapp's 117-day stay, she battled pneumonia and heart and lung failure.
"She was pretty de-conditioned when she got to us, so we had a lot of things to work on," physical therapist Angela Van Zant said.
Doctors say it takes a structured rehab program while battling COVID-19 to get people back on their feet.
"When you first got here, you couldn't stand up by yourself, so we actually had to use a mechanical lift and put you in a harness," occupational therapist Catherine Scott told Tapp.
In the beginning of her rehabilitation training, Tapp had a hard time breathing and doing simple tasks like swallowing or getting dressed.
But now, thanks to the Multidisciplinary Team at Johns Hopkins, and after months of hard work, Tapp is on the road to recovery and ready to step back into the world on her two feet again.
"I'm just ready to go home and see some of my family members that I haven't seen since March," Tapp said.
Tapp was discharged from Johns Hopkins on Friday.
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.
