A 24-year-old Covid-19 survivor is celebrating a different kind of independence this Fourth of July.

“You are as at risk as anyone else,” said Avery. “You can be the healthiest person on Earth, and still risk your life every time you carelessly go out and act like it’s not real.”

“It is very real,” he said. “They almost took me out of my family.”

‘I felt someone was suffocating me’

When Avery arrived at the Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park, Kansas, on April 6, she says she had what felt like every Covid-19 symptom, including chills, high fever, and body aches. But what worried her most was her shortness of breath.

“Even if I had to breathe deeply, I felt like someone was suffocating me,” he said.

“I was definitely thinking something bad was about to happen,” said Avery. “I immediately thought of my son. I immediately thought of my family.”

Avery says she remembers very little of what came next. Once she arrived at the hospital, Avery remembers getting out of her car and getting into a wheelchair. He has a slight memory of being taken to the intensive care unit.

“I don’t mean that I started to panic,” he said, “but I was definitely scared. That’s not a normal patient room. That’s where you are seriously ill.”

Before becoming ill, Avery had taken precautions to ensure the safety of her family in the midst of a lockdown, such as making sure there was enough food.

“But I can’t say I took it as seriously as I needed to,” he said. “I didn’t think it was as serious as it is.”

‘Older people get this virus’

“My opinion on this was that older people get this virus and are more susceptible in terms of actually getting sick,” said Willetta Avery.

“Hearing that my son was going through this was very, very scary,” she said, adding that things “came true” when she learned that her son needed a fan.

“And not knowing much about fans … it scared me knowing I was going to have to use one of those,” he said. “It was then that the severity of his illness gave me a slap in the face.”

Willetta Avery remembers receiving a call from the hospital at 4:30 a.m. on April 11.

“Basically they were telling us that Shakell was maxing out on the vent bracket, that they couldn’t do much else,” he said.

The hospital finally allowed her to see her son.

“It was like I was seeing him for the last time,” he said.

Avery’s doctors at Menorah Medical Center collaborated with doctors at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, both of whom are part of the HCA Healthcare system, to treat him with convalescent plasma.

‘I beat Covid-19’

After Shakell returned, he still had trouble fighting the virus.

“Being independent, you are used to doing everything on your own,” he said.

But he needed help getting up and going to the bathroom. He could not speak or walk. He also struggled with depression in the hospital, particularly when his family visited him in a tent that the hospital installed outside his window.

“It was a great moment at the time, but as soon as they left, I went back downstairs,” he said. “It was really difficult to be away from my girlfriend. It was difficult to be away from my son, my mother and my brothers.”

Avery finally started improving and got off the fan. He started physical therapy and was sent to a full rehabilitation center, where he was discharged late last month.

Shakell returned to Menorah Medical Center with his family on Tuesday to thank the staff for helping him.

“I was more than grateful,” said Avery. “He could have said ‘thank you’ an infinite number of times, and it wouldn’t have matched the intensity of how grateful he was.”

Avery has a message for young people, and says he wants to be “as direct as possible.”

“Every time you carelessly walk out your door, without a mask or empathy for someone else’s life, you are counting your days,” he said.

“My advice would simply be to try not to be selfish, but as selfless as possible,” he said. “Because you’re not just hurting yourself.”