Chartiers Township man survives battle with COVID
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Kyle DeMarino is an avid Steelers fan and memorabilia collector who, after winning the battle against COVID-19, now works from home in his football-themed den. Here, DeMarino and his daughter, Giavanna, and wife, Jillian, relax in the cozy space.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
In August 2021, Kyle DeMarino was hospitalized for 59 days with COVID-19, including 22 days on a ventilator. DeMarino is still regaining his stamina and uses an inhaler as needed.
Kyle DeMarino at his Chartiers Township home with his wife, Jillian, and their daughter, Giavanna. DeMarino nearly died from COVID-19 and is continuing to regain his strength.
Courtesy of Jillian DeMarino
Kyle DeMarino sees his daughter, Arianna, for the first time after spending eight weeks hospitalized with COVID-19. DeMarino is continuing to recover at home, after contracting the virus in August 2021.
Courtesy of Jillian DeMarino
Kyle DeMarino spent weeks in the intensive care unit at Washington Health System Washington Hospital after he became ill with COVID-19 in August 2021. Here, he was placed face down to help get oxygen to his lungs more easily.
During a recent lunch break, Kyle DeMarino embraced his 5 ½-month-old daughter, Giavanna, in the Steelers den of his Chartiers Township home.
The blonde-haired baby girl laughed and smiled as she turned her head back and forth between her dad and mom, Jillian DeMarino.
For Kyle, who nearly died from COVID last fall, it’s a moment he wasn’t sure he’d get to enjoy.
Four days after Giavanna was born on Aug. 20, 2021, the 51-year-old electrical engineer was admitted to Washington Hospital after he tested positive for COVID-19. He didn’t see her again for eight weeks.
Kyle spent 59 days in hospitals, including 22 days on a ventilator.
“I definitely didn’t want to leave my family. I have faith, and I know where I’m going when I die, but I didn’t want to leave my daughters and my wife yet,” said Kyle, who continues to recover.
On Oct. 22, he was well enough to go home to Jillian and his daughters, Giavanna and Arianna, 7. His oldest daughter, Mikayala Swartzmiller, 24, who is a critical care nurse in Palm Beach, Fla., came home to help care for him.
“I’m so happy he’s home now,” said Jillian. “It was so hard not having him here. It was the little things and big things I missed.”
Kyle’s ordeal began on Aug. 24, when test results from MedExpress confirmed he had coronavirus, and the urgent care doctor recommended he head to the emergency department because his blood oxygen level had dropped to a worrisome 88%.
Two days later, Kyle was transferred to Washington Hospital’s ICU, and the following day he was placed on a ventilator.
It was, recalled DeMarino’s wife, the worst day of her life.
Not only was DeMarino put on mechanical ventilation, but she found out that both she and 7-day-old Giovanna also had COVID.
COVID-19 safety protocols prevented Jillian and family members from visiting Kyle, but Jillian spoke with hospital team members at least three times a day for updates on her husband’s condition, “which kept going up and down.”
One night, Jillian got a call from the hospital urging her to come visit her husband.
“They said he wasn’t doing well at all, and they didn’t think he was going to make it,” said Jillian, who recalled walking on to the ICU floor and seeing a team of nurses flipping him onto his stomach.
“I just laid on top of him, started praying, and talked to him about anything I could think of, thinking that if he could hear my voice, that would help him fight,” said Jillian, who is a medical assistant.
Kyle, a former collegiate football player, remembers little from when he was hospitalized at Washington Hospital, but after waking up, he quickly realized the toll COVID had taken on his body. He lost 60 pounds, and had to relearn how to walk.
He still has numbness in his left hand and left toes; he tires easily, and is working to regain his stamina.
Following his stay in Washington Hospital, Kyle went to UPMC McKeesport Hospital to begin rehabilitation (he still had a tracheostomy for artificial breathing and a gastric tube for feeding), and then to Allegheny Health Network Canonsburg Hospital, for continued physical therapy.
“Delta didn’t care that I was relatively healthy,” he said.
Last year, Kyle had opted not to receive the COVID vaccine because he believed he and daughter Arianna had contracted the virus in February 2020 and thought they had built up some immunity.
But after his bout with COVID, Kyle urges people to get vaccinated.
In December, he got his COVID-19 vaccinations. He plans to get his booster shot as soon as he is eligible.
Jillian and Arianna both got their vaccinations (Jillian, in fact, was scheduled to get vaccinated last spring at the pediatrician’s office where she worked, but found out she was pregnant and instead left her job and quarantined).
Jillian’s mission, she said, is to encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Get vaccinated. You don’t think it’s going to happen to you, but it can. It takes two seconds to get the shot, and it’s so worth it in order to avoid going through everything we had to do through,” said Jillian, noting that DeMarino told her the day before he was put on the ventilator that he wished he had gotten the vaccine. “It baffles me that people post things like it’s just a cold, it’s not that bad. It’s so unfortunate that it’s become so political and controversial.”
Jillian said Kyle’s bout with COVID has changed her perspective. She pointed out a pair of house shoes he always left by the back door, a habit that annoyed her because “they were always in the way and I would always move them.”
“When he was sick, I left them there. I couldn’t bring myself to move them. I appreciate all those little things now,” she said.
Kyle said he is grateful to his family, friends, work colleagues at Griffin Interiors, and church community at Central Assembly of God who prayed for him, sent food, and helped along his recovery.
“Washington Hospital got me through. They did everything they could do,” he said. “And if not for God and my faith, I wouldn’t be here. COVID takes a lot out of you, physically and emotionally. I’m appreciative that I’m alive, that I got through it and I survived.”