‘I flatlined’: Man reflects on Covid survival two years later

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  – Exactly two years after he flatlined during his battle with COVID-19, Charles Clemons sat in his barber’s chair reflecting on his remarkable recovery.

“I don’t remember [my family] taking me to the hospital, but literally, on March 17, 2021, I flatlined and [the doctors] had ten minutes to save me,” he said.

“They got my heart back pumping [and] if they had not saved me, I wouldn’t be sitting here today,” he added.

For Charles, St. Patrick’s Day has become more of an anniversary than a holiday.

He told KFOR he received treatment at a local hospital shortly after his COVID diagnosis, unaware that he might not make it out.

“I woke up out of a sedated coma 13 days later in the ICU and I still didn’t remember what had happened to me,” he added.

“There was a nurse present [after I woke up] who had tears coming out his eyes. He’s like, ‘Mr. Clemons, I’m the one that wheeled you into this ICU room [and] I needed this victory. I’m so tired of seeing death’.”

Charles said one of his first stops on a long road to recovery was a visit to his barber.

“He walks in and I’m just kind of amazed because he’s not hooked up to anything,” said Keith Brown who owns 806 Salon in Oklahoma City.

“I knew God was working,” he added saying he remembered getting the news about Charles’s condition and seeing pictures of him in his hospital bed unable to speak more or breathe on his own.

Oklahoma has surpassed a new milestone with over 18,000 deaths attributed to Covid-19.

Keith and Charles said safe spaces like barbershops and salons offer local communities the opportunity to have open conversations as the virus shifts from a pandemic to an endemic, particularly around vaccine hesitancy in the Black community and other communities of color.

“In the chair, if somebody opens it up for discussion, I’m definitely going to give it to you. It’s a conversation that doesn’t need to be sugarcoated,” said Keith.

“I wish I had listened to my brother and got vaccinated sooner, but I always feel that your life …God scripts your life out.”

“When you have a second shot at life, you wake up in the morning [and you’re] just grateful.”