Near Death Michigan COVID-19 Patient Recovers After Receiving Donated Plasma

(CBS DETROIT) - One of Michigan's first Covid-19 patients to receive the experimental convalescent plasma, has recovered and is now home.

As of Monday, over 60,000 people have recovered from Covid-19 in Michigan.

In that number is 74-year-old Richard Beckerson.

"Going down a long hallway of St. Joes emergency, last room on the left I walked in there and they all had on their hazmat outfits," said Beckerson.

He recalls the end of March when family rushed him to the hospital in respiratory distress. Not being able to breathe, he was immediately put on a ventilator. Testing positive for Covid-19, Beckerson would have a long road ahead of him, including three near death experiences.

"When I first started working with him in April we didn't think he would get off the ventilator and we gave his survival less than 30 percent chance," said Stephen Bloom.

But he did survive and that fight for survival didn't come easy. At one point doctors asked the Beckerson family if they wanted him back on life support, or let him go.

"They did everything they could in the ICU which was save my life," he said.

He credits his survival on the use of donated plasma from a person who recovered from Covid-19. Doctors at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor says, he was one of the first patients in Michigan to receive the experimental treatment. Now, after four months in the hospital, he is home.

"God had to look down and say who is this guy, that everybody's praying for," said Beckerson.

© 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.