M COMING BACK FROM COVID:
One Brother’s Journey
by Joann Williams-Hoxha, Content Manager
When Brother William Gibson, 32°, returned home from the hospital after the fight of his life, he was amazed to discover “a couple of thousand” get-well cards from residents of his town of Clifton, New Jersey. Brother Gibson was a police officer with the Clifton Police Department for more than 30 years, retiring as a detective sergeant, and currently serves as a councilman in Clifton.
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ollowing a trip to Florida in mid-February, Brother Gibson returned home with his wife, Robin, and was not feeling well. His symptoms rapidly progressed from a cough and a temperature to telling Robin to call an ambulance as he was struggling to catch his breath. The ambulance arrived quickly and with many first responders who knew Bill personally. They transported him to Hackensack Medical Center on March 26, 2020. The following day, Bill learned that he tested positive for COVID-19. While in the Primary Care unit, there was another patient in his room with COVID as well. By the next morning, that patient had succumbed to the virus. By the fourth day at Hackensack Medical Center, staff moved Brother Gibson to the Intensive Care Unit, but he has little memory of what happened from day four through day nine of his stay. “It was like a bad dream. The worst. First of all, no one’s allowed to see you,” Bill recalled, saying that he tried his best to communicate with his family via text. On Day 9, Bill called his wife and said, “I’ve got to be honest with you; I don’t even know if I’m dead or alive.” The seriousness of the situation was never lost on Bill, who said he has had a couple of good conversations with “the man upstairs” in the past, having endured a stem cell transplant for multiple myeloma in 1999. “That stem cell transplant made me pretty sick, and I thought that was bad. That was nothing compared to coronavirus. This COVID-19 is no joke.”
The Northern Light
