Lincoln man survives COVID-19 battle for life

Days before he would become Male in His 50s with No History of Travel — Lincoln, Nebraska’s first official case of community-spread COVID-19 — Corby Renard knew he was down with something serious.

The homebuilder and father of five was up on scaffolding building a cupola when he started to feel dizzy and sick to his stomach. He put his tools away and sat down in his truck.

He remembers thinking: Wow, that came on real fast.

He wasn’t thinking: This is coronavirus.

His initial symptoms were unusual, the 52-year-old said.

He didn’t have a fever. He didn’t have a cough. But he was unbelievably tired, constantly dizzy and feeling motion-sick every time he moved.

“It was the sickest I’ve ever been.”

And that was the start.

Renard is home now from a two-week stay in the hospital, including six days on a ventilator.

He’s officially recovered. His wife and kids spent 14 days in strict home quarantine, checking in with the health department twice a day to report any symptoms and their temperatures.

All are well.

That was hard, Renard says. Not being able to see his family.

In the first 10 days of his illness, Renard was homebound, leaving his bed only for trips to an urgent care clinic, his primary care doctor and the ER.

He tested negative for influenza, and on his first ER visit, they took chest X-rays and performed an EKG. They asked if he’d traveled anywhere in the last 14 days.

They gave him IV fluids for possible dehydration. He felt a little better and went home.

No one mentioned coronavirus.

“It was kind of a perfect storm against me,” he says. “I didn’t have the typical symptoms. I was the first community case; they weren’t expecting it.”

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