HOUSTON (KDVR) — A Northglenn man has been released from the hospital, nearly nine months after contracting COVID-19.
Andrew Capen was diagnosed with COVID last summer, while on a business trip to Texas. In January, he received a double lung transplant, after being accepted into a program at Houston Methodist Hospital.
“It’s so easy to give up,” he said. “But you think about your family, and you think about what your death would to do them. You can’t give up.”
Capen was on life support for months, and doctors say the effects of COVID and the treatment essentially destroyed his lungs.
“He was healthy. He was happy with his life, and unfortunately COVID caused severe damage to his lung,” said Houston Methodist Pulmonologist Ahmad Goodarzi.
Dr. Goodarzi was part of the team that performed Capen’s double lung transplant, calling it one of the most difficult they’ve ever done.
“The surgery itself was more complex because of that,” said Dr. Eddie Suarez. “All the scar tissue, all the inflammation, it was very difficult to detach his lungs from his chest wall.”
Suarez expects to see more difficult lung transplants as we learn more about the long-term impacts of COVID-19.
“I anticipate there will be more and more experiences throughout the United States, as we see these people with chronic lung disease from COVID needing transplants to fully recover,” he said.
Capen’s family says he’ll need to stay in Texas for about a year for rehab and recovery. He hopes to one day move to New York to pursue stand-up comedy.