Loyola Medicine's First Hospitalized COVID-19 Patient is Fully Recovered and Feeling Like He's '40 Again'

Grateful patient Ted Roberts and his wife Ellen made a generous gift to the Loyola Medicine COVID-19 Medical Response Fund as a thank you for the exceptional care he received after being diagnosed with COVID in March 2020.

Ted Roberts, 68, is living his best life. He walks seven miles each morning near his home in St. Charles, Illinois, continues to work full time and says he feels like he’s “40 again and my body is running on rocket fuel.”

It’s hard to believe that just six months ago, Roberts contracted a near-fatal case of COVID-19, becoming the first patient with the disease to be admitted to Loyola University Medical Center (LUMC), and the first patient at Loyola to receive the test drug remdesivir. During his hospitalization, Roberts, a Type 1 diabetic with broader autoimmune disease, spent nearly two weeks in the intensive care unit and 10 days on a ventilator.

Ellen and Ted Roberts

It was on March 3, 2020, when Roberts, a retail consultant, was on a business trip in Maine where he believes he contracted the disease from a coworker. He says he began to feel sick later that same evening, but continued with his trip, driving to Rhode Island and Massachusetts before returning to Chicago.

On his way home from the airport, he called his wife of 43 years, Ellen Roberts, who was going to watch two of the couple’s grandchildren. Roberts asked her to watch the children at the home of their son and his wife and that she should plan to spend the night there until he felt better.

“Subconsciously, I knew I was really sick,” said Roberts.

By March 11, Roberts says he was “physically and mentally melting down” from coronavirus. Ellen drove him 42 miles to the LUMC emergency department where he was admitted to the hospital with declining blood oxygen levels. Soon after, he was transferred to the ICU and placed on a ventilator, under the care of Shruti Patel, MD.

Loyola’s medical team was led by pulmonologist Kevin Simpson, MD. He told Ellen on the morning of March 12 that she should notify the family about Roberts’ dire condition.

During Roberts’ hospitalization, Dr. Simpson and the medical team at Loyola “were wonderful,” said Ellen. Dr. Simpson called every day with an update on her husband’s condition, and the nursing staff checked in regularly with additional information.

Finally, by Day eight or nine, Roberts’ condition began to improve. He was taken off the ventilator on Day 10 of his hospitalization.

“There’s no doubt that Dr. Simpson saved Ted’s life,” said Ellen.

“My family and I believe, based on conversation with other doctors and medical personnel, that if I were not at Loyola University Medical Center and under the care of Dr. Kevin Simpson, I most likely would not have survived those first critical days,” said Roberts. “I am in awe of the respect Dr. Simpson receives from his peers for his medical knowledge.” Dr. Simpson is also “a compassionate man with a huge heart.”

During his hospital stay, “every doctor, nurse, technician and assistant that worked with me treated me like family, caring and loving. That is Loyola! I wish I knew every one of their names so I could personally thank them,” said Roberts.

Roberts credits his recovery to his “great love of life,” “my doctors at Loyola over the past 19 or 20 years” and remdesivir. Roberts said he has seen many doctors over the past two decades, but specifically called out “the great care and education” he received from his endocrinologist Gerald A. Charnogursky, MD; internist Leo Hall, MD; cardiologists William Jacobs, MD and Lowell Steen Jr., MD; and gastroenterologist Mukund Venu, MD.

Now he is giving back, both philanthropically and by regularly returning to Loyola to provide blood antibodies for a clinical trial, overseen by Loyola physician Gail Reid, MD, that is aiding in the study of COVID-19 antibodies and creation of a coronavirus vaccine. Understanding this important work, Ellen and Ted chose to support Loyola's COVID-19 Medical Response Fund to honor the caregivers who supported them.

“My story is truly a Loyola story,” said Roberts. “I am forever grateful.”