Our first guest was the first COVID-19 patient
at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.
He checked into the hospital on March 5
and was given a 1% chance to live.
64 days later he walked out of the hospital
to an incredible celebration.
Take a look.
[CROWD CHEERING]
Oh, my God.
Please welcome Gregg Garfield, his girlfriend AJ,
and his sister Stephanie.
Hi.
Hey, Ellen.
Hi!
Hey, Ellen.
Hi.
Thank you so much for talking to me.
And, Gregg, you look incredible.
And all of you look very happy.
And I'm very happy to see those smiles on your faces.
How are you feeling, Gregg?
I'm doing great, getting better and stronger every day
and just happy to be talking to you.
Well, I'm happy that you're able to talk to me,
and I'm able to talk to you.
So let's go through this.
Because this is hope for people.
Because there are a lot of people--
we're all scared to death and are
praying that we don't get it.
And then if someone does get it, or someone that we know and we
love gets it, it's scary.
And you had a 1% chance.
And look at you right now.
So let's go through the symptoms.
When did you first notice?
So I got this on a ski trip in Italy.
Third day into the skiing I started
getting flu-like symptoms.
I then took three days off of my ski days.
To not ski on a European ski trip, I had to be really poor.
So then we ended up leaving, hopping on a plane,
flying back to LA.
I was informed on a text message that one
of the guys that had stayed back, that was in the hospital,
was COVID-positive.
When I landed I went right home and quarantined myself.
I contacted my doctor.
And he contacted the CDC.
They ended up sending a van out to pick me up and bring me over
to their office and tested me.
24 hours later, I ended up testing positive for COVID.
And then 9 days into having my first symptom,
it just went overboard, and I couldn't breathe.
I had a fever.
I had coughs.
I called the ambulance.
And they came in full hazmat gear,
and I went to the hospital.
And I was their patient zero.
And so obviously AJ, you did not get it right?
I did not.
No, I hadn't seen him when he came back from Italy,
because he tested positive, so I stayed as far away as possible.
OK.
I didn't know if y'all were living together and you were
there with him or whatever.
So then you were in the hospital and you had
to be intubated for 31 days.
And, Stephanie and AJ, that must have been--
I mean, just being intubated was scary enough.
But then day 1--
Intubated means what?
--day 2, day 3 go--
what's that?
What does intubated mean exactly?
Coma?
Intubated is you're put out.
Is that right, Gregg?
He was on life support.
So yes, he was medicated.
And had a paralytic, so he couldn't move.
And he was completely sedated.
When did they tell y'all that he had a 1% chance?
Was that early on or in the middle of it?
When did they say he has a 1% chance?
Actually we didn't know that.
And in this case, Ellen, ignorance was bliss.
Because had we known he had a 1% chance of survival,
I don't know that we could have stayed as positive.
We would have forced ourself to.
But we just really knew what the doctors had told us.
And it was the vent settings that he was on--
the roller coaster that we went on
was, gosh, there were so many highs.
And then in three hours there would be lows
where he would either have four collapsed lungs,
over the period of time, his kidneys would fail.
He had sepsis throughout his body.
He had MRSA.
It started attacking his liver.
He had a pulmonary embolism.
It was one thing after another.
So we knew he was very, very ill.
We didn't realize until he got off the vent that he
had 1% chance of living.
Wow.
Well, yeah, I guess that's great that you didn't know that.
And, Gregg, so you said you don't remember anything at all?
Because sometimes you hear these stories of when people are out,
they can see things, they hear voices.
But you don't remember anything?
I absolutely-- I don't remember anything.
However, when I did come out, AJ and I sat down
and we went over a lot of the videos and the pictures.
It was a very, very humbling experience.
He had actually-- it was kind of amazing
because one of his ICU nurses told us later on about a story
that Gregg actually knew nothing about.
But it meant a lot to us while he was under.
So she came into my room.
And she told me that every day she would talk to me.
And one of the days she picked up this little
stuffed animal, we named Baby Bear,
because my dog's named Bear.
And she basically tucked this under my chin.
And I was out like a light.
And then all of a sudden, she was talking to me,
tears started rolling out of my eyes.
And she ended up calling AJ and Stephanie.
And it was the first sign of hope that I was in there.
Wow.
Has Gregg caught up on all the Ellen shows
he missed during those 31 days?
Yeah, that's the important question, Andy,
is if he watched my shows.
[LAUGHTER]
So, Gregg, you had to learn everything all over again,
which is--
I'm learning-- I don't know what this means.
But to be out for 31 days, you had to learn how to walk again.
You had to learn how to chew again.
You had to learn how to do everything, right?
Absolutely.
I lost 50 pounds.
And I haven't weighed this little since high school.
So it's the most humbling experience
in the world to learn how to walk at 54 years old.
And you have to be invited up to the rehab center.
So not everybody gets up there.
And I basically looked up to my doctor and just said,
and I get emotional about this every time,
I'm gonna make you proud.
I will not let you down.
And I kicked ass.
Yes.
And you continue to kick ass.
And I will ski again this year.
I'm sure you will.
We're gonna take a break.
And more with Gregg after this.
What a story.
We'll be right back.
Let's talk about the amazing doctors and nurses at St.
Joe's.
I know that you said that that was an experience that--
you give them a lot of credit for you getting through this.
I would not have survived anywhere else
is what I believe.
When I got in the hospital, I was the only COVID patient
there for about 7 days.
And all of their attention was on me.
So that wouldn't have happened anywhere else.
And actually I would even say too
that the nurses were a lifeline for Stephanie and I to Gregg.
And for Gregg to connect with us too.
Because while he was in there and isolated,
we weren't allowed to be there.
We weren't allowed to hold his hand.
We weren't allowed to tell him he's gonna make it
and that he had to fight.
And so to know that we were able to talk to them
and he was taken care of the best
that we could have asked for while we weren't there allowed
us to just breathe easier.
It's amazing because they had all the attention on you
because you were in there and you were the first case.
But in another, it's like you want all that experience
of them treating other people and learning
how to deal with these surprises that come up,
that everybody is learning with now.
Because you're a super-healthy guy.
You were skiing and you're fit and you're young.
And yet you didn't meet any of the criteria.
So it's amazing that your body goes into overdrive,
and your immune system goes into overdrive the more
fit you are it seems.
Yes.
It really was a very humbling experience.
I'm at a loss for words in regards
to the staff that was taking care of me.
They're like family now.
I mean, they text me and call over two weeks out
of being out of the hospital.
So they're part of my village.
And, Ellen, like you said, the doctors
were using Gregg as kind of--
when all the other patients came in, they
were looking at Gregg saying, well, what did we do with him?
And it gave them hope that they would
continue treating other patients because he
survived a lot of it.
Yeah.
I mean.
I'm sure you helped a lot.
And it's a small world because my producer Ryan is married
to a nurse, Kelby, who works at St. Joe's.
Kelby, yes!
I don't know if you met her.
No, we know Kelby.
I had kept a notebook with copious notes, everything
that happened all the time.
And we were actually just looking
through at all the names of the nurses that we worked with.
And Kelby's name-- we had 4 stars next to her.
She gave the most amazing care to Gregg.
Our heart's out to her.
Yeah, they're a lovely couple.
Ryan is amazing.
She's amazing.
And she's been there nonstop, which again, so much credit
is given to these people that are
on the frontlines every day.
So you gave the doctors a special gift I understand?
Yes.
I'm a big tequila fan.
And I gave each one of them my favorite tequila,
which is Dos Artes.
It's a beautiful bottle.
And it's really a remembrance of A, enjoying the tequila.
And putting that bottle on their shelf
afterwards just to remind everybody about the success
story that we had together.
So you have--
I want to be real about this so people--
and the reason we're going to bring this up is--
and it's disturbing.
But you need people to know that you're doing amazing,
but you have a long way to go.
And there's some issues that you're
having still with your body, even though you've
learned to walk again.
Do you want to talk about that?
Absolutely.
My hands and some of my toes were affected.
And as we met with the surgeon last week,
we are about to have some amputations going on.
This virus is very real.
And I'm frustrated at looking out
and people are taking it very light.
And this is no joke.
I think people think, oh, you can get over it and that's it.
But your life has changed.
And even though you got through this, I mean, I can't imagine.
You don't even think about that, the blood circulation
is going to the organs to heal your body
and you're deprived of blood flow to your fingers.
I'm 54 years old.
I've never had--
I mean, I never was sick--
no preexisting conditions.
I'm not the guy that was supposed to get this.
And I ski 70 to 100 days a year.
I'm the poster child for being healthy.
And I basically took a bat to the face.
And it hit me--
it almost killed me.
So I'm happy to be here.
Well, yeah, I'm happy that you're here too.
And you do deserve to be here.
I mean, I don't even know what to say.
I can't imagine what you went through.
So we sent over a gift basket for everyone there.
It's at your door.
Somebody can go get the gift basket at your door right now.
Do you want to go?
I'll get it.
OK, all right.
Ellen, a couple people have told me--
Oh, my God.
--I'm a miracle.
Ah!
Oh, my gosh.
Time to celebrate.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my God.
This is great.
Gregg, real quick, before you tell me--
we got you tequila.
We got you some of my favorite things from the Ellen Shop.
Also there's three tickets to the show.
Because when we go back, I want all three of you to come.
I want to meet all of you.
And also our friends at Shutterfly
have been incredible partners and have
helped us donate nearly a half a million dollars
to COVID-19 relief efforts.
Today they're gonna donate $15,000 to COVID-19 heroes
of St. Joe's in your name.
Oh, my gosh.
That is so fantastic.
Thank you so much, Ellen.
But I want to hear what you were starting to say, Gregg.
So my neurologist came into my room.
And she looks at me and she says, you're a miracle.
Medically you're not supposed to be here.
And she said that your brain is 100%.
And I looked at it, and I said, that's fantastic,
because it wasn't before.
And again, we laughed.
We cried.
And I'm so thankful that they saved my life.
They gave me my life back.
Yeah, I'm so happy.
And it's so great to see those smiles on your faces.
And I can't wait to meet you.
Thank you so much.
Have some tequila and think of me tonight.
And I'll do a cheers to you tonight as well.
Thank yous much.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Thanks so much.