Trent Swanson, 36, was placed into a drug induced coma after being diagnosed with the strain H1N1, commonly known as the swine flu.
The Winlock man diagnosed Jan. 23 with swine flu awoke this weekend from a month-long coma and is starting to breath on his own.
Trent Swanson, 36, went to Providence Centralia Hospital last month when he started coughing up blood and had difficulty breathing following a hunting trip with a friend.
He was placed in a drug-induced coma and transferred to St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.
“Nobody wanted to say the words, but there was a time that they told us he wasn’t going to make it,” Swanson’s aunt Anita Holt said. “So he has come a long way. He is one of the lucky ones so far.”
Swanson is still on dialysis from a kidney infection and is mostly breathing through a tracheostomy tube in his neck, but doctors expect him to make a full recovery.
He was breathing on his own for three hours on Sunday, and on Monday he was breathing on his own for six hours. Doctors are hoping he gets up to eight hours on his own this week.
“If you ask him a question he responds with a head shake or mouth movements,” Holt said. “Tuesday morning, he mouthed to his dad that he wanted to go home.”
Although Swanson can’t yet talk, his father Bruce Swanson said his son responds to conversation, like when the family teases him about the beard he has grown over the past month.
“He’s become alert. He’s trying to mouth words to us, but we are not very good mouth readers,” Bruce Swanson said.
Swanson’s family, including his four brothers, a sister, father, mother, stepmother and girlfriend, among others, have been by his side for the whole month.
“I agree with him, I want to go home too,” Bruce Swanson said.
Bruce Swanson said his son will likely soon be transferred to a respiratory rehabilitation center in either Portland or Seattle. Rehabilitation could take up to six months.
Swanson, the owner of TNT Offroad in Winlock and a TransAlta employee, is fortunate to be recovering from the swine flu, the most common strain this season.
Two middle-aged Lewis County residents, both with underlying health conditions, were the first confirmed deaths linked to the flu this season, the Lewis County Health Department reported in January.
As of last week, 51 people have died statewide from the flu, according to the state health department. The state had 54 confirmed deaths last year.
Health officials encourage everyone six months old and older get flu vaccines. Residents can contact their primary care physicians, local health centers or local pharmacies to get vaccinated.
“They called us all in the room one Sunday morning, and said they didn't’ think he was going to make it and here we are today,” Bruce Swanson said. “All of this could have been prevented with a flu shot.”
