‘It’s a miracle he made it’: Grandfather returns home after beating the odds with his battle against COVID-19

PEMBERVILLE, Ohio (WTVG/Gray News) – Doctors told Loren LaVoy’s family he had a low chance of survival when he was admitted into the hospital to battle COVID-19.

“They told us multiple times that he wasn’t going to make it,” Alyssa Krock, one of his daughters, said to WTVG.

His three children, Krock, Erica Speck and Austin LaVoy, explained he had three chest tubes and over a dozen blood transfusions, in addition to kidney failure, lung failure and multiple cases of pneumonia, among other complications.

“They said he’s the one percent, and it’s a miracle that he made it,” Speck said.

LaVoy contracted COVID-19 in August and spent over two months in a coma while on a ventilator.

His children believe LaVoy fought hard for his four grandsons – all under 2 years old. They say more than anything, he wanted to be able to see them grow up.

“When he was on the ventilator, I would play videos of them all the time,” Krock said. “Even though he was down, we did everything we could to remind him of those babies and to get him home.”

Eventually, LaVoy was moved to a rehabilitation hospital where he spent the last month regaining strength, so he could get home to his loved ones.

It’s been a long and tough five months for LaVoy and his family, but right now, the kids say they are just grateful to still have their dad.

“We’re feeling very lucky that he got to be one of the few people, as sick as he was, that got to make it,” Krock said.

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