90-year-old Life Care Center of Kirkland patient survives coronavirus

This week, there’s a happy story from Life Care Center of Kirkland after becoming an epicenter for coronavirus in Washington state.

“I’ve got a lot of living to do,” 90-year-old Geneva Wood, a patient at Life Care who tested positive for COVID-19 and is now recovering at home, told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show.

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Wood originally went to the Life Care Center to recover from a stroke, where she learned to walk and talk again and was days before going home when the facility was locked down, said her daughter Cami.

While at Life Care, Wood fell and broke her hip. She was then taken to Evergreen Medical Center, where the family asked for her to be tested for coronavirus. The test came back positive.

“[She] had been fighting so hard, to come back and recover from, you know, all the physical stuff she had been through, and then to get that news, it’s just kind of, ‘Are you kidding me?'” Cami said.

“She didn’t receive any ventilation or heroic measures. This was totally her willpower, her strength,” Cami added. ” … This is totally just this stubborn old coot fighting hard.”

While Wood does consider herself to be strong, she didn’t take any of the credit for her recovery, passing it all to her family and God.

“I want to do whatever I can to help others to see that you don’t give up. You just keep on fighting,” she said. “And you have to have a lot of faith in God because he’s someone that sees you through all of this.”

Vice President Mike Pence mentioned Wood’s recovery in a press conference this past weekend, and Dori played it on the show for her to hear for the first time.

“She is not only a grandmother, she is a great, great grandmother, 90 years young, and she tested positive for the coronavirus on March 6,” Pence said. “But by all accounts, she’s doing well. And she wanted America to know there is hope. And her strength and her enthusiasm, it’s truly an inspiration to the nation.”

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Dori asked her how it felt to be held up by the VP as a symbol of hope and inspiration.

“Well, you just hope you can live up to all the things that people have said about you that is good. Thank God they didn’t tell all the bad things,” Wood laughed.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.