Body
¡°I think rehab is a critical part of the story, because I¡¯m here now, I¡¯m practically back to normal ¡ that¡¯s because I went through a long period of rehab. I think there needs to be more attention paid to that part of what happens to patients.¡±
Gordon Quinn couldn¡¯t speak. But he desperately needed to tell his doctors something.
The 77-year-old world-renowned documentarian was finally off a ventilator, for the second time. He had just been helped into a sitting position for the first time in weeks. But now they were talking about putting him on a ventilator for a third time.
¡°I was banging on the side of the bed, trying to communicate that I wanted a DNR (do not resuscitate) order. I didn¡¯t want to be stuck on a ventilator indefinitely. I knew enough to know that could very well be a possibility,¡± Quinn said. ¡°If I had to go through this again, I thought, ¡®I¡¯ve had a good life, I¡¯ve done enough.¡¯¡±
Quinn, founding member and artistic director of Kartemquin Films which is home to award-winning films like ¡°Hoop Dreams¡± and ¡°Minding the Gap,¡± was a COVID-19 patient at Northwestern Hospital.
Hospital staff brought Quinn a letter chart and he pointed to three letters: ¡°D¡±, ¡°N¡± and ¡°R¡±. They set up a Zoom call with his wife, Meg Gerken.
Quinn arrived at Northwestern Hospital on a cold day in mid-March desperate for a COVID-19 test, which was hard to come by anywhere in the city at that time, knowing his weakness and unshakeable flu-like symptoms weren¡¯t good. He was taking medication for leukemia, and had bacterial pneumonia in addition to whatever else was wrong with him.
The doctor had her own message for Quinn: If there were a DNR order in place, and he had a medical problem that she could easily fix, she wouldn¡¯t be allowed to medically intervene. Quinn calmed down and backed off.
¡°That¡¯s when I thought, I want to make a short film about how hard it is to communicate when you¡¯re intubated. And then I said to myself, ¡®OK, that¡¯s a reason to keep living. I don¡¯t need a DNR order right now.¡¯¡±
Quinn is one of Illinois¡¯ more than 113,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and one of Cook County¡¯s 247 officially recovered cases,as of May 25.
The filmmaker thinks he possibly contracted the virus in Melbourne, Australia, where he was a guest at the Australian International Documentary Conference in early March.
Less than a week after returning home, his symptoms gravely concerned him. ¡°I felt like I had a really bad flu,¡± he said. ¡°My body was aching.¡±
At Northwestern Hospital¡¯s emergency room, ¡°you couldn¡¯t go inside. You had to wait,¡± Quinn recalled. ¡°There were wheelchairs there. I was so exhausted I just took one and sat down. They took one look at me and admitted me right away.¡±
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