‘God Breathed Into My Lungs’: COVID-19 Patient Recounts Recovery After Terrifying Experience

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When a retired sheriff’s deputy tested positive for the CCP virus, he feared the worst. His health went into rapid decline, but then the deputy claims he heard the voice of God; this, he says, was the turning point in his recovery.

“What kept me going? I just have had to spend a lot of time with the Lord,” Clay Bentley, of Rome, Georgia, told Insider. “He’s healed my body and I’m ready to be a witness,” Bentley continued, speaking from his hospital bed on March 17, 2020. “I’m ready to be alive for Him.”

Bentley spiked a fever on March 1, the morning after singing with a choir at The Church at Liberty Square in Cartersville, Georgia. Within days, Bentley was experiencing severe respiratory distress and was hospitalized at Redmond Regional Medical Center on March 6; his lungs filled with fluid, and he feared he may not survive.

After several members of the church also tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as novel coronavirus, the church closed temporarily for sanitization.

Prior to falling ill, Bentley, who is in his late fifties, led an active life, though he suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. Describing his experience of hospital quarantine, Bentley explained that at times, he could not breathe. “I had cold chills. I had no energy,” he said. “I'd go to stand up to walk up across the room, I couldn’t even go from a sitting to a standing position.”

“It’s like 10 times stronger than the flu,” Bentley later explained, speaking to CBS News. “When it hits, it hits you like a hammer.”

However, after Bentley’s doctors placed him on a ventilator, he suddenly began to show signs of improvement. Bentley credits God for his miraculous turnaround. “I felt the Lord,” he said. “I mean, his presence was there, and I felt him blow air in my lungs.”

On March 13, seven days into his quarantine at Redmond Regional Medical Center, Bentley spoke to CNN via video call to share his story with the nation. “I’ve rounded third base now,” Bentley said, “and I’m headed home.”

“Love was poured out,” the patient continued. “When darkness came in my life, love was poured out from all over the world. If we just continue to follow love, if we just continue to follow God, everything’s going to be alright.”

Bentley’s wife, Suzy, who also tuned in for the video interview, expressed heartfelt gratitude to God for the technology that has kept the couple connected and for the support that she and her husband have received from the general public.

According to CBS News, after a total of 12 days in the hospital, Bentley was discharged and allowed to return home.

“When I heard he was coming home ... it was kind of a miracle thing,” Suzy said. “I fell apart with the good news.” According to 11 Alive, to date, Suzy remains asymptomatic but is self-isolating as a precaution.

After deep cleaning the bedroom that would be used for her husband’s home quarantine, Suzy added that she had set up a coffee maker so that Bentley could enjoy his favorite beverage once again. Coffee, she said, was perhaps the one creature comfort that her husband had missed the most.

On March 24, Bentley offered an additional update on his health to the news media. Following a two-week quarantine, he told Fox 10, he would be tested for the virus again.

“[I]f the coronavirus in my system is dead, then [the doctor] said you’ll be immune to it,” Bentley explained. “You can go back out in the world and be with your family.”