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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, dEcEmbER 26, 2020
Survivor remembers how virus pushed him to the brink
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — From
his hospital room 200 miles
away from home, Milo Abra-
hamson got on the phone
with his uncle.
Through the phone, Abra-
hamson’s uncle sang a song
from Washat, the religion
of the Umatilla, Cayuse and
Walla Walla peoples. In the
Umatilla language, the uncle
sang of light penetrating the
body and the mind.
It was July 19. Abraham-
son had been hospitalized for
almost two weeks across two
different facilities. He began
to weep.
Abrahamson
doesn’t
know exactly where he con-
tracted the coronavirus. His
best guess is at the Arrow-
head Travel Plaza in Mis-
sion, a frequent stop he
makes to pick up his favorite
brand of bottled water.
But he already knew he
wasn’t feeling well by the
time he went to his cousin’s
funeral in eastern Washing-
ton. His cousin died young
when he swerved his car to
avoid a black bear in the road
and hit a tree.
Abrahamson, a member
of the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reser-
vation, knew that travel was
discouraged during the pan-
demic, especially when sick,
but he felt too heartbroken
not to go. There were precau-
tions at the funeral that reas-
sured him: Attendees wore
masks and were socially dis-
tanced, and he checked into a
hotel instead of staying with
family.
But still, his mother,
Sandy Sampson, worried
about the symptoms he was
exhibiting.
After returning home, he
remembered
accidentally
spraying a bottle of cologne
in his face while unpacking.
He couldn’t smell it at all.
He asked his mom to take
him to the emergency room
at St. Anthony Hospital,
where they initially treated
him for pneumonia. A test
later confirmed he was pos-
itive for COVID-19. It was
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Milo Abrahamson, second from left, poses for a picture alongside Don Sampson, left, Sandy Sampson and Tyasin Burns in
December. Abrahamson, who was hospitalized for COVID-19, said support from those around him was pivotal in his recovery.
July 7.
Abrahamson’s condition
quickly deteriorated. Hos-
pital workers administered
remdesivir, an antiviral med-
ication, but it wasn’t able to
prevent him from falling into
a coma.
One of the last memories
he had before losing con-
sciousness was texting peo-
ple he had been in contact
with at the funeral to urge
them to get tested.
On July 9, he was air-
lifted from St. Anthony
to Providence St. Vincent
Medical Center in the Port-
land area. Sampson went to
St. Anthony to see him off,
noting that it was his late
father’s birthday. The heli-
copter elevated through a
gap in the clouds, the sun
shining through.
Abrahamson was 39
years old.
Isolation
As soon as he departed
from Pendleton, Sampson
returned to isolation.
She and the rest of Abra-
hamson’s family split up
to quarantine. Although
exposed to Abrahamson,
Sampson said only his
grandmother would end up
testing positive for the virus
and she quickly recovered.
By herself in isolation,
Sampson spent her days
working remotely as a trea-
surer for the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation Board
of Trustees. But before join-
ing the tribes’ governing
body, Sampson worked in
health care, including stints
as a hospital administrator
in Alaska and as an interim
director at Yellowhawk
Tribal Health Center.
In the evenings, Samp-
son kept track of her son by
calling the nurses at St. Vin-
cent. Even if she hadn’t been
quarantining, hospital rules
would have prevented her
from seeing Abrahamson in
person.
Derek Primus was one of
the few to get the closest to
Abrahamson during his stay
in Portland.
Primus had been friends
with Abrahamson since
junior high and the pair
stayed close beyond their
school days. When Primus
learned that Abrahamson
was in a coma in Portland,
he went to the hospital.
It wasn’t a long trip for
Primus. He splits his time
between homes in Adams
and Portland, where he owns
and operates a restaurant. He
was in the area when Abra-
hamson landed in Portland.
The best he could do was
talk to nurses in the lobby
about Abrahamson’s con-
dition, and the news wasn’t
encouraging: Abrahamson’s
attendants gave him a 50-50
shot at survival. Abrahamson
later said that he felt his odds
were lowest during the nadir
of his illness, closer to 30-70
or 40-60.
Don Sampson, Sandy
Sampson’s brother and
Abrahamson’s uncle, also
went to Portland. For a few
days, he went to the lobby to
sing Washat healing songs.
Don Sampson, a Walla Walla
chief, said he felt like the
power of the songs reached
Abrahamson, even if he
wasn’t able to be in the room
with him.
During his coma, Abra-
hamson could not compre-
hend the support he was get-
ting from both sides of the
state. With his life in the bal-
ance, he now credits his fam-
ily and friends for making it
out of COVID-19 alive.
“Their thoughts, their
prayers might have got me
through it,” he said.
Intubated
Waking up at St. Vincent,
Abrahamson thought he had
already died.
There was a woman in the
room who looked too young
to work there and the room
had an eerie yellowish hue to
it, like he was in the middle
of a film.
Abrahamson had been
in a coma and intubated
for about a week when he
woke up, his only activ-
ity during that time came
during a moment when he
instinctively tried to remove
the breathing tube from his
mouth. A nurse put it back
in place and he returned to
unconsciousness.
The nurse in the room
continued talking with him
as he regained conscious-
ness to the point where he
realized he was still among
the living. Reality was rein-
forced when the nurse began
extracting fluids from his
neck area, a process Abra-
hamson said was the most
painful in his life.
He was eventually moved
to a different ward, where
the recovery wasn’t any eas-
ier. He struggled to breathe
and endured insomnia for
three days, but the greatest
test was to his mental health.
During his stay in the
COVID ward, a patient in
the bed next to him died
while another screamed at
night. The nurses who cared
for him tried to offer him
moral support, but it wasn’t
the same as seeing family
and friends.
He was allowed to call
loved ones on his phone, but
with his breathing troubles,
he communicated most by
text.
“It almost becomes like
you’re in jail,” he said. “The
walls start closing in because
you’ve been there so long.
You want to see your fam-
ily. You want to be able to go
outside.”
But by July 19, Abraham-
son’s condition was improv-
ing, his oxygen levels sta-
bilizing without assistance
from a machine. His doctors
began talking about releas-
ing him.
But his oxygen levels
plunged again during a trip
to the bathroom, and his dis-
charge was put into doubt.
Demoralized, he con-
nected by phone with uncle
to seek solace through the
Washat song. After the emo-
tional call, Abrahamson hit a
turning point.
“The next day I felt great,”
he said. “I was eating a little
better. I was breathing. I got
a good night’s sleep. That
was one of the first nights
that I got great sleep.”
On July 20, he was free.
Abrahamson has survived
COVID-19, but the path
ahead is unclear.
“I don’t know if my qual-
ity of life is ever going to be
the same,” he said. “As hard
as I try, as much as I work
out, as much as I do, I don’t
think I’m ever going to be
the same person. And that’s
scary, because, if I’m devel-
oping stuff like this at 40,
what am I going to be like
when I’m 60? Am I even
going to live ‘til I’m 60?”
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