The Conversation (0)
Breanna Robinson
Nov 19, 2021
On the day her family was preparing to turn off her life support, an unvaccinated woman in a Portland, Maine hospital awoke from a deep coma she had fallen into after catching Covid-19.
Bettina Lerman had been on a ventilator for weeks at Maine Medical Center in Portland when her son Andrew Lerman and other family members made the gut-wrenching decision to end the life support.
In a report from CNN, the family was warned that the 69-year-old had “irreversible damage.”
Lerman told the outlet that the family had made funeral arrangements and even picked out a casket and headstone for her as they geared up to say goodbye.
But on October 29, the day they were going to take her off life support, Lerman said that he got a call from one of her doctors at the medical center.
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“He’s like, ‘Well, I need you to come here right away.’ I was like, ‘OK, what’s wrong?’” Lerman said. “He goes, ‘Well, there’s nothing wrong. Your mother woke up,’” he told CNN.
In a state of shock, Lerman told WMTW News that he “dropped the phone” when he got the news.
“I was like, ‘What?’ I mean because we were supposed to be terminating life support that day.”
“She’s a miracle,” he told CNN.
In September, Bettina and her son, who live in Tavares, Florida, were in Portland caring for his father, who has cancer, and all three contracted Covid-19.
They were all unvaccinated.
Bettina planned to get the shot before leaving Florida, but she “ran out of time,” according to Lerman.
Lerman and his father both made a full recovery.
A hospital representative told CNN that Bettina, who has medical ailments, is still in “serious condition.”
Her son stated that she had been moved from the hospital’s intensive care unit, but she still requires oxygen.
Lerman said that he believes that getting the vaccine is “the right thing to do” so that if one of the family members contracts “it again, it won’t be that bad.”
He also noted that family members who have loved ones in the hospital with Covid-19 should not lose optimism.
The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for her medical care.