By JENNY DREASLER
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
A Carmel nurse is on a ventilator, fighting for her life after contracting COVID-19.
Lesley Vogel, 60, is at Ascension St. Vincent Carmel. Her daughters, Carolina and Meredith, told News 8 they can’t even visit their mother because of strict visiting restrictions due to the new virus.
“It’s been pretty scary. I live with her, so I’ve been with her through the whole process of her being sick,” said Meredith Vogel.
Vogel is a nurse for St. Vincent’s call transfer center. She has been working there for about a year.
Her daughters told News 8 she had mentioned being glad to be working the phones and not necessarily on the front lines in order to avoid exposure. But now she’s fighting for her life at Ascension St. Vincent Carmel.
“Those were her main symptoms. The mild cough, shortness of breath, temperature. She just didn’t feel great. She was saying she felt poorly,” said Carolina Vogel.
Carolina says it all started a little more than a week ago. Her mom complained about not feeling well. So she went to get a COVID-19 test through Eli Lilly’s drive-up testing.
Last Saturday, Vogel, still not feeling well, went to a neighborhood hospital. Doctors saw signs of pneumonia and admitted her to Ascension St. Vincent Carmel that night.
Less than 24 hours later, Vogel’s condition had rapidly deteriorated. She was intubated, sedated, and put on a ventilator.
“Now, I can’t even talk to her. So it’s really scary and it’s really worrisome,” said Meredith Vogel.
Even more terrifying, the COVID-19 test didn’t come back positive until Monday, 48 hours after she had been admitted.
“So, by that time, she didn’t even know she is COVID positive for sure. Because they came in after she was intubated,” said Carolina Vogel.
Now, the girls hope by sharing their story more people will take social distancing to heart.
“I didn’t think that it would happen to us. But now that it has, I know that it could happen to truly anybody. So I think it’s just important for everyone to be smart and stay home,” said Meredith Vogel.
The girls say doctors give them updates over the phone once a day and they hope to have their mom off the ventilator in two weeks. That’s an amount of time they hope will be enough for their mother’s lungs to heal.