COVID-19: One Family's Journey

By Stephen A. Hebert

COVID-19: One Family's Journey--enjoy reading this dynamic story about the author, Stephen Andrew Hebert, his life, his careers as a pastor and registered nurse, his walk with God, and his family's journey as he went from being a frontline caregiver to becoming a critical care patient who was fighting for his life.

First, hear about the significant stories and pivotal moments that motivated Stephen toward a deeper relationship with the Lord and a career in health care, which was later followed by a call to pastoral ministry. Then take the walk with him as he leads the reader along through his initial forty-day battle with the COVID-19 virus and his invigorating vision he experienced while his life and his lungs were being supported by the ventilator. All of this led to a three-month recovery period, which was full of hilltops and valley bottoms but consistently driven by the hand of God while being shielded by His unfailing grace.

Read the inserts by his family and friends as they share their reflections and they discuss their experiences and their pain while being fully invested and completely engaged in Stephen's well-being and recovery. Finally, Stephen acknowledges the intersections he and his family encountered while dealing with the COVID-19 virus and its long-hauling aftermath; he discusses the implications and the impact that each had on them at this juncture in their journey of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781639036134

Book preview

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COVID-19

One Family's Journey

Stephen A. Hebert

ISBN 978-1-63903-612-7 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63903-613-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by Stephen A. Hebert

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Stephen Andrew Hebert has been a frontline worker serving in the medical field for over thirty years. He later became an ordained minister in 2006, adding a second vocation to his career as a registered nurse. Having been bivocational for over fifteen years, he has embraced every challenge and accepted it as an opportunity. This was no exception when the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the United States in the year 2020. Enjoy reading this dynamic story about his life, his careers, his walk with God, and his family’s journey as he went from being the caregiver to being the patient.

sTo the prayer warriors out there, you prayed, and I’m alive! Thank you sincerely.

—Stephen Andrew Hebert

Forewords

For many in the United States of America (USA), March 2020 was one of those defining moments of change for every person and thus for our nation. March 2020 was the month that businesses, churches, and schools were told to lockdown and close. The reason was that our nation was experiencing a pandemic that was extremely contagious and, for some in our community, very deadly. For many, this seemed no different than preparing for a hurricane, northeaster, or being snowed in. However, as days turned to weeks and weeks to months, the financial, emotional, and physical toll began to be felt and, thus, many experienced despair, depression, and some experienced death. In the beginning, not everyone believed the pandemic was as dangerous as the Center for Disease Control (CDC), politicians, and the media were portraying it to be. There was no consistency on how to avoid it and who was most likely to contract it. Some believed (and still do) that this pandemic was purposefully allowed into our nation to disrupt a presidential election and collapse the world’s strongest economy and further divide the USA. All the while, more and more people were contracting the virus, getting sick, and some even dying.

As a mental health professional and pastor, I saw many who became emotionally and spiritually depressed as jobs were lost, as people were not allowed to gather, and as churches were told to close. Those few pastors (God bless them) that fought to stay open were vilified by the media and fined and arrested by local authorities. In the middle of this fight were the physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers who saw the worst of the pandemic as people (of all ages) were being impacted by the virus. One such person was Stephen Hebert, RN, MDiv. Stephen courageously helped others in the COVID units and encouraged others in their faith. He brought hope and healing to many. And then it happened: when the caregiver became the patient. When Stephen contracted the COVID-19 virus, most of us believed that because he was young, healthy, and a health-care worker, he would beat this virus as 98 percent of those who contracted COVID-19 would. However, Stephen was hospitalized and near death. A man who had given his talent, time, and technique to the battle against the COVID-19 virus was now fighting for his life. His story of faith, God’s grace, and intervention and his miraculous recovery should inspire generations who will look back on this time in our history and know that God still intervenes; miracles still happen, and prayer changes things.

I hope this book will inspire you and remind you that medicine is amazing, but it is only part of the equation of hope and healing. That faith, hope, and love, along with prayer, persistence, and people who care bring the healing, comfort, and salvation we all long for and need.

Dr. Mark E. Crosby, PhD

Mental Health Professional

Senior Pastor of Live Oak Church

Watson, Louisiana

I first met Stephen Hebert when he took a job as a registered nurse case manager for a hospice company for which I served as medical director. I met with him on a bi-weekly basis to discuss the patients for whom we were caring. I knew then that he considered his nursing to be more than just a job. He really saw it as a ministry. After about a year together at the hospice company, we both moved on and did not have any contact for a couple of years. When the pandemic struck in the spring of 2020, I was the medical director for a local long-term acute care (LTAC) hospital. We mainly cared for patients with serious wounds who needed prolonged intravenous antibiotics and wound care. When the pandemic struck, there was a growing need for people to care for patients with the COVID-19 virus, especially those who were being discharged from the acute care hospitals but were recovering and still not ready to go home. We transformed our specialty hospital into a COVID-19 step-down facility within a matter of days. I was caring for patients with the COVID-19 virus when I had the opportunity to reconnect with Stephen when he came to work as a charge nurse on the unit. At times, we had up to twenty-seven patients with the COVID-19 virus on the unit. Stephen cared for them personally and took a special interest in them beyond just giving them the medical care that they needed. Little did we know at the time, Stephen would eventually contract the COVID-19 virus himself and become a patient. He was admitted to acute care ICU where he improved initially and was discharged home only to relapse and end up back in ICU. This time, he was intubated and on a ventilator struggling desperately to live. These were tough times. There were days when I was certain I would get a call telling me that Stephen had died, but he never lost hope, and he never gave up, always trusting that good would come out of the trial that he was enduring.

I was not involved in caring for Stephen during his illness but was able to follow his progress from a distance. It was a lonely time for him as no one could visit him or be with him during the worst of the illness. Finally, perhaps miraculously, he began to recover. As I said, there were many days that I was sure I would receive a call telling me he had died, but he lived. I do not know that I qualify to certify that his recovery was a miracle, but it certainly seemed miraculous to those of us that knew him. To me, the important thing is not really whether his recovery was a miracle, a work of modern medicine, or some of each. The important thing is what Stephen has done with the opportunity given him to live. Amazingly, in December of 2020 and only the fourth month after contracting a severe and debilitating case of the COVID-19 virus, Stephen came back to work at the same LTAC where he likely contracted COVID-19, and he resumed caring for patients who had COVID-19. The truly remarkable thing is the difference he made in the lives of the people for whom he cared. He knew what they were going through, and he was able to share his story with them and encourage them to keep on fighting when they were ready to give up. It is amazing to me what can be accomplished by those who see everything that happens to them as an opportunity. It is worth listening to Stephen’s story for it is a story of value of steadfast hope and trust in God in the midst of the worst tragedy one can imagine. Even more, it is the story of how one can a take what seems like a curse and allow God to turn it into a blessing, not only for the one who has struggled but also for countless others with whom that one will come into contact for the rest of his life.

It has been my great privilege to have known Stephen and to now be able to call him my friend. It is also my great privilege to testify to the results of the ministry that has come out of his illness. I encourage you to not only read his story but to follow his example in allowing God to use whatever tragedy, challenge, or trial that may come in your life. What you suffer may go a long way in allowing God to reach out to those who would otherwise never know of the great mercy and love of our God.

May God richly bless you and use all of your suffering for good.

Dr. Durwin D. Walker, M.D.

Medical Director of SAGE Specialty Hospital

A COVID-19 Unit in Denham Springs, Louisiana

1

Background

Do you ever stop at various intervals in your life and do some reflection? Maybe on birthdays or holidays or during the changing seasons of the year? I usually would do most of my life reflections on my birthdays that end in 0, such as 20, 30, and 40, but since turning forty, I find myself doing this quite often these days. I do not usually make plans to do these reflections; they just happen, and it is usually when I am still and quite when my life reflections have the biggest impact. I just take a moment to stop and sit, whether inside or out, and I think about all that has happened and all that God has brought us through as a family and throughout life. In a sense, it is a form of meditation, and in another sense, it is a form of prayer. Life reflection has proven to me to be healthy. It can be therapeutic, and it can really help one realize just how much our Creator, God, really is involved in our lives.

My name is Stephen Andrew Hebert, and I am forty-eight years old. I was born April 19, 1973, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to my parents Donald and Darlene Hebert. I am married to my high school sweetheart, my soul mate, and an amazing woman named Stephanie Hebert, and we just celebrated our twenty-fifth-year anniversary of marriage and thirty-one years of companionship. We have three amazing children: Samantha (twenty-two), Trent (twenty), and Rhett (eighteen), and we live in a vibrant community in Livingston Parish in the City of Walker, Louisiana. I am writing this opening on October 28, 2020, while at home recovering from a drastic and brutal battle with the COVID-19 virus. I wanted to begin by sharing a large part of my background and testimony, which will help bring about a story line that will hopefully be somewhat therapeutic for each one of you who read this, and prayerfully, it will offer you hope for the future. I have plenty to share, and I am praying you will be blessed by the time spent reading about our family’s journey through a treacherous and painful experience with COVID-19. I want to start by sharing a few significant stories, which make up part of my testimony. By the end of the book, you will see how well these stories intersect together as the Lord assembles my life’s puzzle. Besides being a husband and father, I am also a nurse, a pastor, a Christian, and a God-loving and fearing man. I would like to begin by sharing my background in the medical field.

The Nurse in Me

For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a vascular surgeon. This desire goes back as far as me being five years old, possibly even younger. I did not know what a vascular surgeon was back then, but I knew I wanted to be a surgeon that worked on blood vessels. I later learned this is what a vascular surgeon is. I know some people may find this hard to believe, but this desire was hardwired into me at birth. This is not something that I chose; this is something I just knew. Years later, after becoming a Christian and studying the Bible, life began to make sense for me. In Psalm 139:13–17, the scriptures say that when God knits us together in our mother’s womb, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. His works are wonderful. His eyes see our unformed body. He ordained all of our days and wrote them in His book before one of them came to be. There is only one you, and God makes no mistakes. He has big plans for you no matter who you are. Finding our way into His will on our journey in life is the key to fulfilling those big plans. Early on in my Christian walk, Psalm 139 became one of my favorite Scripture passages. It makes so much sense about my life, your life and, in fact, all of our lives.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! (Psalm 139:13–17 NIV)

For various reasons, we had a rocky household as I was growing up, and I made a lot of bad decisions as a rebellious teenager. My grades were awful, as I was not applying myself at all. As I was inching through high school, my chances of being able to graduate became slimmer and slimmer to the point where, one day, I had painted myself in a corner and ended up having to drop out and explore the general educational development (GED) route. When I passed my GED exam, it provided me certification that I had high school level academic skills, and I was awarded a high school equivalency diploma. This occurred in January of 1991.

At this point, I figured my chances of becoming a vascular surgeon were shot, but there was still a lot of opportunities in the medical field that I could pursue and build a good life on. Shortly after getting my GED, I enrolled in a nursing assistant program at a local junior college to pursue a certification as a nursing assistant (CNA). Once I finished, in January of 1992, this landed me a job in Louisiana’s largest hospital’s operating room as a surgical attendant.

Once I was actually working in the operating room, I was able to see the various roles of the different team members behind the surgical doors. After watching a few surgeries, I had a strong desire to become a surgical technologist, so I pursued a separate local program to earn these credentials while working full time as an orderly. It took a little while longer this time, but I eventually became a certified surgical technologist (CST) in December of 1994. At the time, my fiancée, Stephanie, and I were working on getting married, but I knew we were going to require a budget that exceeded a CST’s salary, so I enrolled in nursing school at Our Lady of the Lake College. I graduated with my associate’s degree in nursing in December of 1997, and I continued working at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge as I pursued my undergraduate degree in health care administration. What is so ironic about all of this is that I obtained my certification as a registered nurse first assistant (RNFA) after nursing school while working at the hospital, and I was hired by a private group of vascular surgeons. I started with them in May of 1998, and I worked with them for approximately ten years as their director of clinical and surgical services, director of clinical research, and