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DANVILLE -- A year ago when the pandemic first hit our communities, Daniel Bisset, 49 year old Clarks Summit resident, was hospitalized for 25 days with severe symptoms, requiring him to go into a coma for two weeks.
On March 7, the one year anniversary of Bisset being admitted to the hospital, Bisset was able to receive his second and final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine from one of the many doctors that helped save his life, Dr. John Sobuto, critical care physician at Geisinger Medical Center.
"I am incredibly grateful," Bisset said.
"Honestly it was like coming full circle," Sobuto said. "(Giving him the vaccine) was one of the greatest rewards. To give him and Shannon (Dan's wife) that sense of hope…there is nothing like that."
"I found myself tearing up a little bit (getting the first vaccine)," Bisset added. "(The second) was more symbolic. I held it together pretty good, and it was an incredible day. The health system even surprised me with other visitors there, too."
When Bisset first came into Geisinger Medical Center, he was very sick, according to Subuto, he was "deteriorating very quickly."
"I couldn't let him deteriorate into death," he said.
He quickly needed to get oxygen through the ventilator and then was put on specialized ECMO, heart-lung bypass, treatment for the severity of the virus.
At this time, there were still a lot of "open-ended questions" for the health systems and how they should go about treating COVID, including visitor restrictions, severe treatment and more, said Dr. Karen Korzick, co-director of critical care medicine at Geisinger in the Central region.
"Dan and his family have been guinea pigs basically," she said. "This is not just a journey that the patient takes, this is a journey the family takes."
Unfortunately, Bisset wasn't the only one who contracted the virus in his family including his mother, who was also in the Intensive Care Unit and his father, who passed away.
His sister and his mother are both scheduled to receive their vaccinations soon.
Today, Bisset is still dealing with side effects of the physical recovery including shortness of breath which has caused Bisset a lot of challenge when doing normal tasks like going to work or doing extra curricular activities.
According to Korzick, a full recovery for a virus with the severity that Bisset experienced, will take anywhere from one to two years.
He sees a multitude of specialists including a physical therapist, a psychologist and even a sleep doctor.
"The journey is still ongoing," Bisset said. "I have come to understand how precious life is and how quickly it can be taken from you…every conversation is important."
"I haven't changed my behaviors, I still practice all of the precautions," Bisset said. "I am optimistic about where we are heading and I hope that many people will (get the vaccine) as possible."
He even added that "we may not all have a favorable response to the vaccine" but that a message from someone who survived the ICU, those side effects will only last a day.
"The world kind of changed for me," Bisset said. "It is increasingly important for people to understand that they have to do their part."