World War 2 vet, 95, beats coronavirus and says ‘I survived the foxholes of Guam, I can get through this bull****’
A WORLD WAR II vet, 95, who beat the killer coronavirus, said "I survived the foxholes of Guam, I can get through this bull****."
Bill Kelly from recovered from the deadly virus on Monday after his 14-day home quarantine, reports .
The McMinnville man was diagnosed on March 17 but powered through the fatal disease this week.
“Grandpa Bill’s pretty hardcore,” his granddaughter, Rose Ayers-Etherington, said after revealing her "chipper and sassy" grandpa contracted the virus on .
Ayers-Etherington had said he was "kicking [coronavirus] in the butt" in the widely shared post.
“In his words, ‘I survived the foxholes of Guam, I can get through this [coronavirus] bull****,'” she wrote. “He has strong mental resolve. He has seen tough times and knows how to get through them.”
She explained that "tough as nails" Kelly weathered the Great Depression and was among the first US troops to head to the South Pacific during WWII.
The newspaper reports he started feeling unwell with a on March 15 and was hospitalized overnight due to kidney disease, his congenital heart condition and high blood pressure.
Kelly came home the next day but Ayers-Etherington's husband, who is a medical evacuation pilot, had transferred patients who may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
His granddaughter Ayers-Etherington said Kelly was tested just in case, even though his symptoms were mild.
Her husband, Isaac Etherington, 42, was the only other person tested in the household and it came back negative.
Kelly lives with the couple, their two children, aged 5 and 11 months, and Ayers-Etherington's mom.
Etherington said they treated Kelly "like a leper" as he spent his first week isolated in a bedroom which he only left wearing a mask and relatives wiped down any surface he touched.
But the stoic vet managed to come out the other end after he spent his isolation period drinking plenty of liquids, watching old movies, and praying.
“But it was still nerve-wracking,” Ayers-Etherington said. “We were just drinking hot tea all the time. Taking zinc. Washing our hands constantly.”
Ayers-Etherington said she was in no way downplaying the “seriousness” of COVID-19 in her initial post about his condition.
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“It’s real and it’s here and it needs to be respected,” she wrote.
“Just hoping grandpa Bill’s story will encourage you and put a smile on your face. Also, the rest of us are healthy.”
At least 16 Oregonians have died from the virus, which first emerged at a meat market in Wuhan, .
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