Today we bring you the second part of a two-part interview with residents Neil and Jennifer Chaudhary.

Police Commissioner and former councilman Neil Chaudhary missed a lot over the 12 days he spent sedated and on a ventilator at Danbury Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit while battling COVID-19, including an important birthday celebration and a significant escalation of coronavirus infections that were impacting Fairfield County and his own community.

“The day I went into ICU, I was one of three patients on a ventilator,” he told The Newtown Bee over the course of several interviews for the news organization’s “Surviving The Virus” series. “Twelve days later when I came off it and woke up, I was one of 38.”

Day eight of the 12 of Neil’s stretch on a ventilator fell on April 1, which also happened to be his son Evan’s 14th birthday. That Wednesday began with a heartfelt Facebook post from Jennifer Chaudhary, who by then was becoming accustomed to using the social network to update their circle of friends about Neil’s condition and recovery.

“Like Neil, I think he will some day help people,” Jennifer said of Evan. “This is the first time Neil Chaudhary has missed a birthday. This is going to be a difficult day for Evan, he and Neil are so close. They carry on conversations sometimes that are well above my head and only they understand. [Daughter and Evan’s sister] Maya and I often just roll our eyes at them because we are pretty sure they share the same brain.

“He has stepped up these last few days and helped me so much,” Jennifer continued. “I’ve watched him just naturally step in and do some of the things here at home that Neil often does. I’m so proud of him. We are going to do our best to make this day as happy of a birthday as possible for him.”

By this time, the Newtown Police Department and numerous community officials who knew the Chaudharys had already posted references to his situation on social networks themselves, along with countless calls for support and prayers for Neil’s recovery. At the same time, members of the department and Police Commission, along with First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, were hard at work planning to give Evan as much of a boost as possible, considering how much he was missing his dad.

After taking the opportunity to have Neil as present as he could be on Facetime while still sedated — thanks to an accommodating Danbury ICU nurse — family members sang “Happy Birthday” to Evan. Then, a short time later, it was time for the entire neighborhood to join in the celebration along with numerous members of the NPD as a caravan of police vehicles with lights flashing and sirens blaring led a birthday caravan through the Chaudhary’s neighborhood and up to the front door of their home.

With Jennifer, Maya, and Evan at an appropriate distance, the first selectman led all the participants in song before a chorus of applause, horns, and sirens capped off the impromptu celebration.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Neil’s medical team was beginning to decrease the level of his sedation so he could be somewhat conscious and begin preparing to breathe on his own again.

“His temp is down, WBC [white blood count] is down and the inflammation numbers have dropped more today,” Jennifer posted later on April 1. “These are great steps forward but still needs prayer. To use the Doctors analogy, the airport is still a ways off, he’s still circling but he’s considering a landing.”

By the next day, she reported that Neil attempted to speak, which was obviously impossible but thrilling to everyone who had closely been following his progress. Then, on April 3 came one of the grittiest, blurriest, but happiest selfies ever — of Neil smiling with eyes partially open, and the message: “Look who decided to join the party!!! And oh boy is he gonna love that I posted this picture... No more ventilator! He is now heading to the step down unit. He will spend a few days there before I can bring him home.”

Home At Last

By April 5 — Day 15 of his ordeal — and after a couple of days in a Danbury Hospital COVID step-down unit, which is an intermediary stop before moving to a normal patient room, Neil’s post-ventilator recovery began ramping up and physical therapy was added to the mix. That same day, Neil made his return to Facebook with a touching but appropriate post that included the lyrics to Led Zepplin’s “Thank You,” — and closing with “I love you Jennifer Green Chaudhary! Be back home to you soon!”

He also faced the hard reality of what almost two weeks in a medically induced coma can do to one’s ability to function in ways so many take for granted.

“I hadn’t been on my feet for two weeks,” he recalled during a later interview. “So while my doctor was willing to help me try, I had no idea how difficult it would be to even try to stand for a minute. But then it was all about taking the next step, and then the next. By the next day I knew I’d be okay to continue recovering at home, so when my doctor came in, I said to him, you need the room, and I need to be home.’ So after a few calls, we were able to get the necessary medical equipment over to the house.”

The following day Jennifer posted about “the next step in our journey [which] will be a long and difficult one but I’m thankful to just be able to have the opportunity to even have a journey with him. Today his plane has landed and HE IS HOME. We feel blessed and so very thankful. Neil Chaudhary, the kids and I are having the very BEST day!!”

Then came an April 7 reflection from Neil where he described what at first seems to be an amusing anecdote about a day early in his hospitalization, with his nurse catching him in the bathroom — but it quickly turns deadly serious: “She yelled at me again and I wondered if maybe my new fancy oxygen with its own bubbling water supply was detached, but it was intact... [then] I saw the ‘controlled fear’ in her eyes and I knew something was not right.

“She yelled down the hall that she wanted me intubated now (any thoughts of continued poop jokes were gone and I felt real fear). I tried to get her to reconsider but listening to the alarms going off, realizing they were for me and watching people rushing into the room (I was still on my little commode) I realized that I had failed my family. I truly felt like a loser. I had to tell Jennifer Green Chaudhary what was going down. So I used my remaining seconds to gather information,” Neil related.

“The nurse was actually perfectly precise in her description. I am not sure why I felt like such a failure, other than I knew being put on a ventilator meant I was likely going to die. I made sure Jen had the contact for our life insurance guy, and that was the last coherent thought I had until they removed the tubes,” he continued. “The non-coherent thoughts will follow and are wildly bizarre yet oddly parallel to the life I was ‘living.’ I was incredibly angry at that nurse, but in hindsight realized that had a less decisive person been working the desk the outcome may not be what I know it to be now.”

In subsequent Facebook posts and in conversations with The Newtown Bee, Neil attempted to sum up the experience and vivid dreams he recalled while being fully or partially sedated during his 12-day course on the ventilator.

“As soon as I mentioned them, others share stories of relatives’ dreams, so it’s good to know the weird dreams aren’t just me,” he wrote in an April 8 post. “I essentially had one set of dreams split between a waking event. I know now that they tried to bring me out and failed so that makes sense. But the first round was so vivid I was sure it was real. Although in what world could such an adventure be real? Well, in a post-Covid world, of course, so the surrealities of my dreams seemed believable to me at the time.”

An April 9 post provided an opportunity for Neil to reflect on his own faith journey, which was lengthy and fraught with deep spiritual conflicts. But in the end, he remained confident, as Jennifer related in the first part of this story, that faith and the power of prayer brought him through to recovery.

“I am grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers,” Neil wrote. “I have said many times that we humans are wonderfully adept at not seeing the miracles that happen daily. Thank you all again. I truly believe that my being here is a miracle wrought of God, faith, prayer, and science (because what is science other than people learning the natural laws set in place by God?)”

Weeks Of Recovery

One of Neil’s interview calls with The Newtown Bee happened following his second in-home physical therapy session. His COVID tests were still showing he was positive with the virus, so Neil was still unable to engage with his family the way he wanted to upon his discharge.

This was about the most difficult aspect of Neil’s early in-home recovery process; he says his inability to simply hug his children and kiss his wife was monumental compared to the pain and strength-sapping physical recovery he was enduring.

“I’m definitely getting stronger,” he said. “I was actually surprised at how quickly it took to get through the exercises, and how winded it left me.”

In the subsequent days, Neil continued to progress physically, but continued to be frustrated over the fact he was still testing positive.

“Getting released is exciting because you get that exhilaration that ‘I’m going home,’ but I was still COVID positive, which happens with a lot of people,” he said. “So you have a tendency to feel like once you get home things will get back to normal, but I was still isolated from my family.”

“And I need to have two negative tests before I can actually come out of isolation,” he shared. “Fortunately, once the first negative test comes back, I can do the second one the next day and hopefully be free to return to my family almost immediately.”

At that point, Neil had no idea how long the virus would stubbornly remain in his system. On a May 12 call, four weeks after he arrived home, he reported he was able to walk slowly without the help of a cane.

“It wasn’t just his legs that had to recover,” Jennifer said. “It was his entire physical routine that needed to get back — things like combing his hair and shaving at first was a challenge.”

“At first, even getting your legs working under you is a struggle. It was a full four weeks before I was able to walk without a cane,” Neil added. “At this point my doctor says I will be rehabilitating for months.”

During that call, he also revealed the preliminary good news of a first test reading negative.

“It was 54 days between when I stared showing symptoms and when I tested negative,” he said. “I was hopeful that I could see my family pretty quickly after I came back home but it ended up being three more weeks being separated from my family. It was quite a letdown. Physically I was healing, but each little thing that happens when you’re still positive is stressful. Being deemed negative is extremely important for mental recovery.”

Jennifer said it was excruciating for her and heir children as well. “There’s a fear that he was still positive,” Jennifer said.

“We’re rule followers so we all stayed quarantined even though the doctor said I was probably not shedding the virus,” Neil said. “Eventually, by the fourth week, the doctors said I was likely testing positive for a dead virus. So I got to leave my room masked and still remaining six feet away from anybody. It may sound ridiculous, but I was able to sit and finally watch television with the family. That was huge for me — to be able to see the kids with my own eyes instead of on an iPad.”

After several more days, Neil and Jennifer were able to go out to pick up medications at a drive-through pharmacy, and to go to drive-up testing.

Once he was fully cleared after two negative tests, Neil said one of the best experiences he had was simply holding his daughter Maya’s hand and walking with her up and down the driveway “pain free and cane free.”

“Thinking back to just two weeks ago, I needed a walker to keep my balance. Now it’s stuck in a corner,” he said.

“People need to know there’s a huge mental health component to recovery,” Jennifer said.”It’s not just the isolation and the hospital stay. This virus is so contagious, and so deadly. So it’s really important that people account for the toll it takes on their mental health if a loved one goes through this.”

“And people who come up and try to cheer you up by saying something like, ‘At least you survived,’ or, ‘Aren’t you happy you’re above ground?’ isn’t helpful,” Neil said. “It’s actually really stressful. It reminds you of how close you were to not making it.”

Continuing her now months-long routine of putting a positive spin on even the worst situation, Jennifer ended the conversation on a bright note, saying, “I’m just happy he can do the dishes again!”

In the coming weeks, The Newtown Bee will be seeking and publishing local residents’ accounts of their own experiences with COVID-19. If you tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and would like to relate how you managed through symptoms and recovery — or would like to share your caregiving story and tips for others who may face grappling with the virus in the future — please e-mail Associate Editor John Voket at john@thebee.com — and he will respond to discuss how that coverage could be presented with appropriate sensitivity to those involved.