77-year-old Jacksonville Beach man recovering after 15 week battle with COVID-19

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A 77-year-old Jacksonville Beach man is at home recovering after his battle with COVID-19.

Randall Runyon, or “Ronnie” as his friends call him, is a 77-year-old COVID-19 survivor living in Jacksonville Beach.

Back in February in he started showing symptoms after returning home from visiting family in LaBelle, Florida.

“The Monday before I went into the hospital I experienced some chills. That was Monday evening and it happened again Tuesday evening and then on Wednesday I started running a fever,” Runyon said.

When he called his primary care doctor he was told to head straight to the emergency room.

That’s when he was admitted into the intensive care unit.

Dr. Danny Pulido with Baptist Medical Center Beaches told me the virus wreaked havoc on Runyon’s lungs.

“He has background history of COPD, in his particular case it effects more of his upper lungs, but when he got the virus he had a lot of inflammatory changes of the lower lungs. He really had little to no wiggle room for breathing,” Dr. Pulido said.

Runyon spent 15 long weeks in the ICU.

Four of those weeks were spent in isolation where he couldn’t have any visitors.

While being confined to his hospital bed for weeks, Runyon thought about being home with his significant other Kathy and his new cat Tangerine.

“We nicknamed him Boo Boy,” Runyon said.

Nearly four months later on July 6, Runyon was finally wheeled out of the hospital surrounded by healthcare workers and cheers.

He told me he’s lucky to be alive thanks to the hard work and care from Baptist Beaches.

Today he’s still on oxygen 24/7 and has a shortness of breath.

“I hope to get back to the point where I don’t require oxygen but that might be some wishful thinking,” Runyon said.

Runyon hopes by sharing his story others will begin taking the warnings from doctors more seriously.

“Wearing a face mask is a very small price to pay to avoid going through getting the virus,” Runyon said.

Cox Media Group