The Hall family of Buford, Ga. -- Grant Hall, UF soccer player Cameron Hall, Stuart Hall, Kellee Hall and Chandler Hall -- in one of their first photos together after Stuart's COVID-19 battle. (Photo: Courtesy of Hall family)
Profiles During A Pandemic: A Father's Day To Cherish
Saturday, June 20, 2020 | General, Soccer, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – His dark journey deep into the abyss is one that now, having returned to the brightness of his home and family, affords Stuart Hall with a few one-liners to lighten the mood.
In the story of Hall's life, he must rely on his wife and three kids to fill in most of the details of April 2020. If you ask what Hall recalls, his colorful personality takes over the moment.
Hall tells you that on the night of April 6 he remembers lying in bed watching the movie "Creed." After that, his mind can only access foggy dreams from a medically-induced coma. But what dreams they are. He remembers visions of being involved in a battle between drug cartels in Mexico. At one point, he was stuck in a Tyler Perry sitcom. Once he moves past those visions, Hall's memory takes a somber turn. UF soccer player Cameron Hall with her father Stuart last season. (Photos: Courtesy of Hall family)
"Probably the scariest thing, I was stuck underneath a plexiglass door and had on a scuba mask and couldn't get out,'' Hall said.
The father of Gators soccer player Cameron Hall, the 52-year-old Hall is back on his feet. He is working to regain his strength and some of the 30 pounds he lost during his trip to a place he was not ready to visit. He recently got a fresh haircut. His heart is healthy. His lungs are strong. He is jogging. He is laughing and loving life with wife Kellee, Cameron and her older siblings, brother Grant and sister Chandler.
Hall has been a father for more than 20 years, but after what he has experienced the past three months, he has never looked forward to a Father's Day like the one on the calendar Sunday.
"When you get new life, it gives you new perspective," Hall said. "I'm just grateful to be alive."
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A freshman midfielder on the UF soccer team, Cameron Hall played in eight matches and logged 124 minutes in her first season away from home. The youngest of the Halls' three children, Cameron followed in the footsteps of Grant and Chandler to become a college athlete. Grant played football at Duke and Chandler recently completed her senior season on the women's basketball team at Rollins College.
With life on pause due to the coronavirus pandemic in late March, the family was anchored at home in Buford, Ga., when Stuart began to feel sick on March 25. The next several weeks turned into a blur of fear and hope, of close calls and occasional sunshine.
"We lived from phone call to phone call every day,'' Cameron said.
At first, Hall tried to fight off the fever and chills with a caring hand from Kellee. He figured whatever he had would pass. A longtime student minister who serves as director of student leadership and leadership networking for Orange (ReThink Group) and leads INFLUNSR, an organization whose mission is to "fuel the next generation of leaders worth following" according to Hall's bio, Hall is by nature an optimist. He was also healthy, someone who walked five miles a day with Kellee to stay in shape.
Still, after days of sickness and no relief from a constant fever, Kellee took Stuart to the emergency room on March 29. In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, doctors took an X-ray of his lungs but with COVID-19 test kits in short supply and administered only to patients admitted, they sent him home to recover.
Hall's body had other plans.
"It progressively got worse,'' Kellee said. "I was really concerned."
Stuart's condition continued to deteriorate and that led to Kellee speaking to an infectious disease doctor on April 3, at which time Stuart was prescribed hydroxychloroquine, a decades-old drug used to prevent and treat malaria and is also a treatment for conditions such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. It has been used experimentally to treat COVID-19 but on June 15 the Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency authorization amid growing evidence it doesn't work and could cause serious side effects.
Stuart started taking hydroxychloroquine on a Friday and by 1 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, April 7, Kellee and Grant rushed him to the emergency room. Cameron and Chandler soon arrived in another car in fear for their father's life.
"Everything changed in his body after that. He went downhill big-time,'' Kellee said. "I was just so scared. He just couldn't get his heart to calm down. He could not even calm himself down to sleep."
Besides a fever and body aches, Stuart also complained of indigestion and had trouble breathing. As soon as doctors began to examine him, they knew he was in trouble.
Dr. Huda Sayad, a palliative care physician at Northside Hospital Forsythe in Cumming, Ga., located about 40 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta, was embedded with the hospital's ICU team during the pandemic.
She quickly assessed Stuart's condition as dire. He was placed on oxygen and intubated.
"This was a very sick patient,'' Dr. Sayad told TV station Fox5Atlanta. Kellee Hall with her husband Stuart during his 26-day hospital stay for COVID-19.
Kellee said quick goodbyes and was later told Stuart had experienced a COVID- induced heart attack and blood clots. In the hospital's parking lot, Cameron turned to prayer and made a call to Gators head coach Becky Burleigh to inform her of Stuart's condition. She sought any support she could get as the hours and eventually days passed.
"That night was probably the hardest,'' Cameron said.
Doctors told Kellee her husband was in the fight of his life. Not only did tests confirm he had COVID-19, but he had to have surgery to clear blockage in his heart and was suffering from congestive heart failure. The blood clots added another layer of danger.
For the next two weeks Stuart fought for his life on what Cameron called a "roller coaster" as family, friends and Cameron's Florida teammates and coaches held a prayer meeting on Zoom, including Tweets of support from UF Athletic Director Scott Stricklin.
Meanwhile, Stuart was in a medically-induced coma and unaware of the support outside his hospital window, which had an oversized blue heart posted on it so family and friends in the parking lot knew what room he was in.
"One of the things I think the general public fails to realize, the toughest part about what is going on with this pandemic is that family members aren't allowed to be in the room,'' Stuart said. "They experienced the trauma of that because I'm just laying there. I have no recollection."
Following various signs of hope and several deflating setbacks – Stuart was extubated at one point and taken off a ventilator, then quickly put back on it – Dr. Sayad and nurses helped Kellee and the kids stay in contact with Stuart by taking an iPad into his room and allowing him to hear their voices via FaceTime calls. They did not see him physically for more than three weeks.
The turning point in their minds came on April 21 when Dr. Dwarakinath Harish, a kidney specialist, suggested Stuart receive a blood plasma exchange from a COVID-19 survivor. Kellee gave doctors permission for her husband to receive two transfusions of plasma.
"In less than 24 hours I was a different person,'' Stuart said.
Three days later he was extubated. On April 29, a month after his first trip to the emergency room, Stuart was transferred out of ICU. Cameron shared the moment on social media as her father was wheeled out of the ICU while doctors and nurses lined the hallway clapping. Finally, as he came of the coma and regained his senses, he was released from the hospital on May 2.
Stuart was released from the ICU and into a regular hospital room. Thank you God💙 pic.twitter.com/rI4MvQV2jY
If there is one message Stuart Hall wants to make clear through his ordeal, it's that the medical professionals on the frontline of the pandemic deserve to be applauded.
"I am so undeserving,'' said Hall, choking back his emotions. "I have no idea why I am still here, but I'm so grateful to those men and women. The real heroes in this are the doctors and nurses. They saved my life."
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Hall was so weak at the end of his 26-day hospital stay that he had to relearn how to walk. He left with a reddened dent on his face underneath his left eye from laying on his stomach so much as doctors tried to save his life.
Two days after being released, he started outpatient physical therapy. He is getting stronger each day. He continues to put the experience into perspective, from the night he was sick and watched a movie in bed until the day he woke up and had no idea where he was or why everyone around him was wearing masks.
"In between all that is a lot of really heart-wrenching [stuff],'' he said.
Cameron tears up when thinking of how close her dad came to be not being here for this Father's Day. She has difficulty putting into words her appreciation of all the family, friends, teammates, coaches and Gators fans who sent prayers and well-wishes to her on social media as she shared the experience in search of any hope she could get.
She is grateful her dad beat COVID-19. She remains concerned others might not. It's a balancing act thousands of other people know all too well and one reason she was inspired to share her family's story as it was happening in real-time.
"I wanted to be kind of an example," she said. "Hey, this is real."
As for a potential return to campus and the playing field this fall, Cameron remains hopeful but cautious.
"I don't even know. It's so sensitive for me,'' she said. "I can't let the fear that I have and I know that is going to be there stop me from facing it. That doesn't mean I can't take precautions and being as wise as I can going back, but I definitely think it will be interesting. I don't know. I think right now we're just trying to see how many people can come back without it being crazy. I hope for the best. I'm praying for the best because I can't wait to play again."
This is going to be a Father's Day unlike any other for Stuart Hall. He is still here. Meanwhile, his father, 78-year-old Jimmy O'Neil Hall, is not. Jimmy Hall passed away Jan. 9 at home in Semmes, Ala. The man they called "Pops" was a decorated Vietnam War veteran in the U.S. Air Force, an avid fisherman and sports fan. He cherished cheering on his 10 grandchildren, including Grant, Chandler and Cameron. The Hall family have much to celebrate on Father's Day 2020.
The elder Hall passed away barely two months prior to his son's fight for life. Stuart Hall, like so much of the past three months, is still sorting it all out in his mind.
"I guess we have me to celebrate,'' Stuart said. "How do you reconcile that? It's a bittersweet thing. I'm really, really grateful."
He shared a story of seeing a good friend recently for the first time since his illness. The friend told him how good it was to see him.
"It's so good to be seen,'' Stuart responded. "That's much better than to be viewed."
The final words in this story belong to Cameron, who knows 2020 will never stray far from her mind as long as she lives.
At her darkest moments this spring, she thought about the worst-case scenario. It was impossible not to. Her big smile was hard to uncover some days. Those days have passed. Maybe Sunday she will share a Father's Day post for the world to see. Her big smile included.
"I'm just so thankful. Not only is he back physically, but he is back mentally and emotionally,'' she said. "I think that is one of the biggest things I missed, because oftentimes my dad is my source of encouragement or a word to hold onto. I'm able to hear that every day. What an opportunity to use everything that we've gone through."
