Chuck Robertson, of Livonia, was fighting COVID and in need of a special bed at a different hospital for a chance at a lung transplant.
Fortunately, he got the bed and is slowly improving. His daughters, Sophia, Ali and Faith, and his wife Lisa refused to let him go despite spending days on a ventilator and falling into a coma.
“I had people that stood up to administrators, stood up to doctors, stood up to nurses and said ‘We’re not going to do it to him,’ and here I am,” he said.
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Robertson came out of the coma to find he was in a new hospital and two months had gone by.
But he was afraid to fall back to sleep.
“I was this close to death and I never got to say goodbye to my daughters, I never go to say good bye to Lisa, Everything just kept piling on,” he said.
His lungs healed on their own and after 131 days and three hospitals, he came home to Livonia.
“Until I got in the car to drive home, it didn’t really hit. I cried when I got in the car. It was a long road ... It’s still overwhelming,” he said.
Robertson is now vaccinated. In March, he was hesitant to get it, which brings him to his first message.
“If you haven’t done it, trust me, you’ll wanna do it,” he said. “I hope people see this and take away don’t give up. If you’re an advocate, fight for them.”
Every day, Robertson, known as the “bearded man,” is making progress but he doesn’t think he’ll get back to 100%. But after everything he’s overcome, having his team of advocates, he said not to count him out.