BALDWIN COUNTY, Ga. — As Georgians are getting vaccinated, some are still dealing with the long-term effects of COVID-19.
What started as a dry cough back in September sent Steve Stewart to the hospital.
“By 2:30, the next morning, I had 102-degree fever,” says Stewart.
His COVID-19 test came back positive.
“My wife got home and I said, ‘Take me to the emergency room. I can't breathe.’”
He started out in the Baldwin County Hospital, but after a few days, he was transferred to Atrium Health Navicent in Macon.
His wife, Terri, was waiting outside to catch a glimpse of her husband before he was moved.
“I hadn't seen him for a week, so I thought this is my chance to kiss him,” she says.
“Friends that work for EMS transported me and they literally brought me out the door. She spoke and they told her, ‘Get out of the way, we've got to get him to the hospital,'” Stewart remembers.
“They took off before the ambulance doors were even shut,” Terri says.
He had double pneumonia while he was in the ICU and was covered in bruises because of all the needles and injections he needed.
After a month in the hospital and, at times, thinking he might die, Stewart came home in October.
"When they said he was coming home, I took off work at 12:00 and waited and we didn't get home until 9:00 that night. I was very excited."
But his battle with the virus is long from over.
He was diagnosed with neurological and brain damage because the loss of oxygen wreaked havoc on his brain.
Stewart says it takes him a while to get his thoughts together -- he's started forgetting things and sometimes he just can't get the words out.
If you look at his hands, you can see the tremors.
"A lot of days, it is so bad that if I was to pick up a can of Coke to drink it, I have to hold it with both hands like a toddler and drink it like a sippy cup. If I didn't, I would literally shake the Coke or the drink out of the can."
Stewart is also on the waiting list for a double lung transplant at Emory Hospital in Atlanta.
“Emotionally, psychiatrically, physically, it all plays on you.”
He's also tethered to an oxygen tank.
"My neurologist said, "You gotta understand that old Steve that thought he was Superman as 'Mr. Police Officer' doesn't exist anymore.'"
Terri says now that he is home, it's been a tough transition for both of them.
"I had to do everything for him. Help him take a shower. Help him walk to the bathroom," says Terri. "There was a time when I didn't understand how sick he really was."
Stewart says because this is all so new to everyone, at this point, no one can really know what all of the long-term effects will be.
“I feel like I'm a science experiment because nobody can really give you a definitive answer and I know there's a lot of people that feel that way.”
He says he wants people who are dealing with similar situations to know they are not alone.
"I wouldn't wish this on anyone," he says. "I want people to know that, yes, what you're seeing, feeling, hearing, thinking, it's real. The tiredness is real. The loss of memory function is real."
Now, because of those lasting effects, he says his 20-year career in law enforcement is over.
He worked at the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, the Ivey Police Department, and, most recently, with the Atrium Health Navicent Police Department.
Stewart oversaw their training and led the Special Response Team.
He’s also been an adjunct instructor at the Georgia Public Training Center, a certified firearms instructor and, at one time, a firefighter.
"I'd be lying if I said in my law enforcement career I'd never been scared. I've been scared plenty of times. This is the hardest experience I've ever gone through."
When it sank in that his life as a law enforcement officer was over, he was in disbelief.
“Hurt. Anger. Mad at God, mad at the world, you know, 'Why me?'”
It's something he says he is still coming to terms with.
“A lot of tears shed,” he says. “It cost me my career in law enforcement. At 54 years old, I’ll never work again.”