When the coronavirus first crept into Nebraska, the Brashear family of Seward decided it would abide by health recommendations and wear face coverings. They wore masks when they went to get groceries and on their way to work. They wore masks all summer except when they were at home.
As Concordia University's Vice President for Institutional Advancement, family patriarch Kurth said he felt it was important for him to set an example. Then, in late September, the family let their guard down. Days later he was in the hospital where doctors said he sustained lung damage. It was like he had glass shards in his lungs, he remembered hearing.
Kurth Brashear eventually returned home to make his recovery. On Nov. 9 he stood in front of Gov. Pete Ricketts inside the State Capitol to talk about the damages done by COVID-19 as transmission rates continue to increase across Nebraska.
Brashear described his family's precautions before explaining how he contracted the virus. They invited friends into their home and the group stayed outside most of the time. Both families had children the same age so they'd already been around each other, and cases in Seward County hadn't begun their historic rise.
“Sept. 24, after this event, we were notified that two of the people who were there had tested positive for COVID,” Brashear said. “My wife and I immediately left our places of work, picked up our kids and immediately started our quarantine as Four Corners Health Department had directed.”
Brashear said he developed symptoms that day but nothing that he doesn't typically get during harvest season when his allergies act up. He got the chills over night and his mind wandered. Then he started violently coughing, causing full-body aches that Friday and Saturday. He hurt so bad he couldn't sleep. By Sunday evening he was in the hospital.
A friend of 30 years and current doctor at Duke University Medical Center advised Brashear to seek medical treatment. Brashear's blood-oxygen levels teetered between the low 90s and 80s – low enough to be concerning. The friend said he'd treated patients who also felt fine and then needed oxygen administered 12 hours later.
“It was trusting him and having a long relationship with him and and what he's been dealing with that made it easy to go in and get it looked at,” Brashear said.
He and his wife initially went to Memorial Health Care Systems in Seward. Hospital representatives told them that if he needed oxygen they'd send him to Lincoln, since the hospital sends its COVID-positive patients to Bryan Health. So the two went straight to the emergency room.
“I'm glad we did,” Brashear said. “It was certainly the low point in my COVID symptoms.”
He said he felt better leaving the hospital six hours later. He slept 12 hours and felt noticeably better by Monday evening. Granted, he said, he was prescribed dexamethasone, the steroid given to treat immunosuppressant effects.
Brashear completed his isolation stint and continued to shy from public settings after. Since then transmission of the virus has rapidly spread throughout Seward County. Even on Concordia's campus, which saw only a scattered half-dozen at a time, confirmed cases eventually got up into a few dozen cases in October. Active cases on Concordia's campus have since dropped back into single digits for both students and staff. Brashear said the university's decision to remain in Phase 3 of reopening and requiring face coverings on campus helped stop continued spread on campus.
“I think COVID is making us identify what the most important thing is to us and that indicates how we act,” Brashear said. “Not coming back made them realize how important that was to them.”
He said that he's a firm believer in masks helping stop the spread of the virus. He said he likes to see face coverings encouraged around the community.
He said he's not sure why he's the one in his family to contract the virus. Or why he was one of the 60-80% of Nebraskans to develop symptoms but not need a ventilator.
“You can never tell how you'll react to it,” he said. “We're deluding ourselves in thinking we know all the answers for something that's a developing situation.”
So Brashear said he wanted to speak about his experience with COVID-19. He wanted to lift the stigma about being COVID-positive. He said he wanted to share his story and that, hopefully, it would empower friends and neighbors to tell their own story of surviving the pandemic illness.
