Birmingham (US): An Alabama man who spent World War II repairing bomb-damaged trains in France has recovered from a fight with COVID-19. Now he is raring to go and celebrate his 104th birthday Thursday. Major Wooten was physically drained and a little fuzzy mentally after battling the new coronavirus. However, he appears to be on the mend, said granddaughter Holley Wooten McDonald.
“I’m just thankful that they were able to treat him so quickly and we were able to get him tested,” said McDonald. “It’s amazing that a 104-year-old survived COVID-19.”
Madison Hospital shared video of Wooten wearing a face mask and waving. Healthcare workers sang ‘Happy birthday dear Pop Pop’ as he was discharged in a wheelchair decorated with balloons Tuesday. Wooten’s discharge came two days before his actual birthday.
McDonald said her grandfather served as a private first class in the Army. He then went on to a postwar career with US Steel in Birmingham. Wooten tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov 23 after her mother – his daughter – got the illness.
He received an infusion of the newly approved monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab. However, he was physically drained the next day. So he had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance the day before Thanksgiving, she said.
“I don’t know if that medicine just started working, but within 24 hours he was better,” she said. Wooten’s blood oxygen levels are good now and his lungs are ‘clear as a bell’, McDonald said. She said her mother also recovered from COVID-19, and so did a sister. However, her sister had to spend a week on a ventilator.
The brush with COVID-19 was Wooten’s second major health scare this year. In the spring, he was hospitalised with serious heart problems and recovered, McDonald said.
Wooten, a big University of Alabama football fan, received a video phone call from Alabama coach Nick Saban after that scare. He also got attention on the local news, McDonald informed. “He was on cloud nine after that,” she stated.
For Wooten’s birthday, a company erected a yard display that included the Alabama athletics logo, a cake, candles and a patriotic hat.