Bryan Glebavicius, 27, of Wright City has been hospitalized with COVID since November.
As his condition worsened, he was transferred to three different hospitals to get the care he needed. Now, he's at Barnes waiting for a double lung transplant to save his life.
His mother, 65-year-old Pat Chrismer-Glebavicius, tries to hold it together. "It's been really hard. If it wasn't for my youngest son and my best friend, I'd probably be in a million pieces," she said.
Glebavicius has been on life support machines since early November. He spent most of that time at Saint Louis University Hospital. At one point, his heart stopped and doctors resuscitated him.
His mom recalls when he first felt sick in late October and how quickly things went downhill.
"He got so sick so fast," she said.
He has since been kept alive by an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine and a ventilator. The ECMO machine pumps blood from Bryan’s body to an artificial lung where it adds oxygen and then sends the blood back into his body. He needs this support because his lungs have been destroyed by COVID.
He was recently transferred to Barnes Jewish Hospital, the only hospital in the St. Louis area that does lung transplants.
"It’s been a difficult 3 and a half months of ups and downs and a lot of tears and some joys," Chrismer-Glebavicius said.
Her son has been called a miracle with the progress he's made. In December he sat up. A month later he was standing and then he was walking.
"The first time he stood up and the first time he walked I cried. The whole team cheered for him and the whole team is still cheering for him," she said.
Now that he is able to talk, Glebavicius told her he regrets not getting vaccinated.
"It shouldn't have happened. I used to preach it to him all the time and he would just say 'mom, I’m as healthy as a horse. I can beat this,'" she explained.
He has since received his first shot of the vaccine and will get his second on Feb. 21. COVID vaccination is required for him to get the lung transplant.
"He doesn't want to be dependent on me or anybody else," Chrismer-Glebavicius said.
She has been by her son’s side for six hours a day, five days a week. As she anxiously awaits the call that there are lungs available to save her sons life, she wants others to know that this could happen to anybody.
BJC requires multiple vaccinations before transplants to "ensure the best chance of survival."
In a statement, the hospital said:
"To prevent complications and ensure the best chance of survival following a transplant, most transplant centers require patients to receive several different vaccines.
Because lung transplant patients have higher risk of complications from respiratory illnesses – particularly COVID – many programs require a COVID vaccine as a condition of being listed for transplant. Lung transplant recipients are at significantly higher risk of death from COVID-19, and vaccination before transplantation improves the efficacy of the vaccine. This is in line with recommendations from the American Society of Transplantation However, vaccines are highly recommended prior to all organ transplants. Vaccination lowers the risk of complications, including death, from COVID-19 if exposed and infected after transplantation."
A bill in Missouri is hoping to change that requirement. It would allow unvaccinated patients to receive organ transplants and is currently making its way through the state house.