GARRETSON, S.D. (KELO) — Cody Linneweber of Garretson received news of a positive COVID-19 diagnosis the day after Thanksgiving and went into cardiac arrest on the last day of November.
“They were on the phone with my wife, saying they could, they were doing everything they could to get me back, and after 18 minutes they got a pulse back, and they intubated me and put me in ICU,” Cody Linneweber said.
“It feels so amazing to have him here with me,” Cody’s wife M’Lynn Linneweber said.
“I’m on the fire department, and I had been to calls where we have cardiac arrest victims, and you see what they’re going through and then you wake up,” Cody Linneweber said. “And I hit the call button for the nurse, and I’m like, ‘what happened?’ and she told me what happened, and I just couldn’t even believe it.”
Cody’s cardiologist Dr. Tom Stys explains that Cody went into cardiac arrest because of COVID-19.
“Cody is back to normal, so I expect him to live like a normal person,” Stys said.
Stys says COVID-19 can bring about heart failure as well as have a secondary impact on heart health.
“We have noticed since the pandemic that patients neglect to see early signs of heart problems,” Stys said. “They’re either neglecting them because they’re so overthinking the COVID situation, or they are basically afraid to leave their house, afraid to come to health care institution, afraid to see the doctor to get further help.”
Cody, who teaches for the Brandon Valley School District and is the Garretson Volunteer Fire Department’s secretary, is feeling thankful following his experience around Thanksgiving.
“Be grateful for what you have, and I’m only 30 years old, and I’m in the hospital, and I’m seeing these people in this cardiac unit and these ICU units,” Linneweber said. “And I’m 30 years old, and I went into cardiac arrest from this stuff, and it makes you really feel grateful for what you have, it really does.”
