Speech-language pathologist Liza Rignell is one of the providers assisting Dave with his rehabilitation therapy.

David and Laura Keene, of New Ulm, both contracted COVID-19 at the beginning of November 2020 and hoped they would escape serious side effects. But, as has been witnessed again and again, COVID can barely affect one person while severely affecting the next, for no apparent reason.

That is just what happened with the Keenes. Laura lost her sense of taste and smell, and that was the extent of her symptoms. On the other hand, Dave had shortness of breath, a fever, a cough and was ultimately diagnosed with pneumonia due to Covid. However, that wasn’t the worst symptoms Dave experienced.

The day after Thanksgiving, Dave felt severe pain in his leg.

“We thought it was just a really bad charley horse,” Laura said. Dave went to the Emergency Department at New Ulm Medical Center (NUMC) when the pain became alarming.

“All of a sudden, I get a call from the ER doctor who says Dave has a blood clot and he’s being put in an ambulance to the hospital in Stillwater, which was the closest large hospital that had a bed open,” Laura said. “I couldn’t believe it!”

Dave was transferred the next morning to Abbott Northwestern Hospital when a bed opened up.

Dave ultimately suffered a stroke, caused by a large brain bleed in the left side of his brain. He also had blood clots in his leg and both lungs. Several studies have been done that link increased chance of blood clots with the COVID-19 disease. A study released in April 2021 led by University of Oxford researchers, after concerns surfaced about blood clots caused by the vaccine, found that COVID-19 – the actual disease – poses 8 to 10 times the threat of blood clots in the brain than do coronavirus vaccines.

As a preventive measure, a filter was placed in Dave’s lung to prevent any potential additional blood clots from traveling through his blood stream. It will eventually be removed. He was also put on blood thinners to help break up any other potential blood clots.

But the damage had been done and Dave stayed at Abbott Northwestern Hospital almost two months, recovering and re-learning how to walk, talk, and more with the help of Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy. He continued with all three therapies at NUMC at the Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute – New Ulm when he returned home at the end of January.

“He started over from scratch with all three therapies,” Laura said. With the help of his therapists, he has made incredible progress and advanced out of Physical and Occupational Therapy. He continues with Speech Therapy, due to severe aphasia and apraxia of speech.

Sometimes the right words just don’t come to him or it’s easier to write them down than say them. Sometimes the wrong words just come out of his mouth. “For example, instead of saying Happy Mother’s Day, he said Happy New Year’s to his mom,” Laura said.

“He’s been doing so much better with so many things,” Laura said. “He’s just had great progress overall.”

Physical Therapy included lots of walking on a treadmill and in the halls in the department as well as some trickier footwork, like sidestepping cones. Occupational Therapy is where he relearned how to do things like tie his shoes and pick up smaller objects like eating utensils.

The Keenes have confidence that Dave will make a full recovery, not only because of the help of the therapists at Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute – New Ulm, but because of Dave’s work ethic.

“I was ready to work. I wanted to get better,” he said. Dave and Laura also work on things at home that they have been given by all three therapists.

To learn more about Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute – New Ulm, go to allinahealth.org/couragekenny.