Defying the odds and beating COVID-19

In March, Wimberley resident Woody Franke was facing major heart surgery. In May, he was facing a fight for his life battling some of the most severe impacts of COVID-19.

The pandemic has changed a lot of things in our daily activities from the way we dress and interact with people to using technology to communicate with each other at a distance and, of course, shopping for goods and services. But those impacts pale in comparison to the fight that thousands of Americans have faced when going on a ventilator because of the disease.

In all these changes, one thing remains underneath it all – the human spirit. This is one of those stories about how far the human spirit can take us.

Franke was new to the act of defying the expectations of doctors and death, but he has done so in numerous facilities all around the Austin and San Antonio area. Despite all odds, he has survived to tell the story. Hopefully, in the next week or so, he will be able to spend some time with his family, especially his wife of 56 years, Rita, who is back in Wimberley.

He has survived 100 days in hospitals, 68 days of it in an ICU and 73 days on a ventilator.

The beginning is one many can relate to. The longtime couple wanted to move to Wimberley as it is a beautiful place to live. It was time to retire after a high pressure, responsible job, just like a lot of retirees who have dreamed about moving into the area. This was the time to settle down, enjoy the Blanco River, the small town and the nature that surrounds the valley.

“I worked for the U.S. State Department… I worked with computers,” Woody said.

Growing up in Houston, he graduated from Spring Branch High School. He attended the University of Houston while working at the Bank of the Southwest as a night auditor.

He found an interest in computers and took many courses in the very early days of computers. Today’s terminology would say that he was learning how to be an IT manager. He worked for, “the Air Force in Viet Nam, Iran (before the revolution), Aramco, Saudi Arabia and then joined the State Department in 1987,” Gretchen Franke, his daughter said.

As a Foreign Service Information Management Officer he was assigned to: “Paris, France, D.C., Canberra, Australia, Brussels, Belgium, Quito, Ecuador and Athens, Greece.” He retired in 2007, and they built their dream house.

Retirement brought more travel with his wife. “We did one trip to China, Machu Picchu (in Peru), long drive trips, and went to Alaska. I like to travel,” Woody said.

“Dad has always been incredibly healthy; at 77 he was still running on the treadmill regularly,” Gretchen said.

“However, in March his cardiologist found a blockage, and his doctors recommended he proceed with a double bypass on March 31 before COVID hit and might make some surgeries unavailable.

“As a result of his double bypass he was high risk for COVID since his immune system was weakened. He seems to have contracted COVID the first weekend in May when everything reopened in Texas, after a trip in Wimberley to the grocery store, post office, and library. Ten days later he was hospitalized,” Gretchen said. Then his situation got worse.

“May 7 he went in for a pacemaker after a successful bypass and was diagnosed with COVID… on May 18… His oxygen levels went down. He was hospitalized. By Friday May 22, it wasn’t working,” Gretchen said. “The ICU doctor said, ‘You should come if you can.’”

He was sedated and now on a ventilator and intubation that required that a hole be made in his trachea.

He was given an amnesiac to help him forget the ordeal and the pain his body was dealing with. Woody only remembers having tubes up his nose, not the ventilator that required a hole to be made in his trachea. He didn’t remember the small heart attack he endured.

He spent three weeks in Northeast Baptist in San Antonio and tested negative for COVID-19. Then he was moved to Cornerstone Hospital in Austin. He went to Cornerstone June 8, as it was closer to the family and offered long term acute care.

He was there a couple of days, then had progressive kidney failure, and was transferred to Ascension Seton in Kyle. Then he was transferred back to Cornerstone on June 20. “There was not a lot of optimism at Cornerstone,” said Gretchen.

“They didn’t think he would come off the ventilator, because he had pulmonary fibrosis… It was a hard couple of weeks,” Gretchen said.

Finally on July 22, after being on a ventilator for 73 days, he came off the ventilator and was able to breathe on his own. The final piece was out of his throat, and on August 3 he passed the swallow test with flying colors. When he swallowed, it did not go into his lungs and that meant that he was allowed back on food.

Liquid food came and was soon followed by solid food. Learning to walk came next and then a transfer to Central Texas Rehabilitation Center.

“I’ve been walking down the halls with a nurse and went 75 feet. It was a big accomplishment,” Woody said. “I gained consciousness (last month) and started to come back. I had good doctors and nurses…(but) where the hell was I? When I was unconscious, I had strange visions in my head. I woke up, and wondered whether I was alive or not. I felt odd at first, but then made more sense in not too long.

“I couldn’t lift my arms, now I have a pretty strong upper body, and now learning to walk (again)…my legs are still weak.”

His motivation to beat the diseases and recover was to be with his wife, two daughters and “seeing my granddaughter grow up.” He plans on taking it easy with his wife and, “if I ever recover completely, a trip to Antarctica.”

Woody should be back home any day now, resting and grateful to the doctors and nurses who helped him through the whole ordeal. He is, of course, glad to be going back to his family. They rallied around him, with each family member hoping against hope that somehow those dark days of Woody’s suffering would turn out to be a story with a happy ending.

UPDATE FROM WOODY:

“I’m doing pretty well, compared to last summer. Rita and I are adjusting to life after Covid, but are happy to be back together. I’m walking on my own, and I don’t even need a cane anymore. I just recently started driving again, and I feel like a teenager who stole his mom’s car for a joyride! I’m looking forward to getting the vaccine and then seeing my daughters and granddaughter in person again as soon as we can in 2021.”