Elderly Woman In COVID-19 Coma Wakes Up As Family Plans To Turn Off Ventilator

An elderly woman was in a COVID-19-induced coma, but she surprised her family when she woke up the day her family decided to take her off the ventilator.

Bettina Lerman, 69, was on a ventilator with COVID-19 for weeks and doctors said that she wasn't going to survive, so her son, Andrew Lerman, and other family members started preparing for her death, reported PEOPLE.

Andrew told CNN that his family picked out her headstone and casket and made funeral arrangements. Then on the day they planned to pull her off life support, her son said that one of her doctors at Maine Medical Center in Portland called him and he was asked to reach the hospital. Recalling the conversation he had with the doctor, Andrew said, "He goes, 'Well, there's nothing wrong. Your mother woke up.'" When he got the news, he dropped his phone.

He said that his mother, who will turn 70 in February next year, had many health conditions, including diabetes, prior to getting infected. She also had a quadruple bypass surgery a few years ago and had a heart attack as well.

In early September, Bettina, who was not vaccinated, started showing symptoms of COVID-19, and was on diagnosed Sept. 12. She was put on ventilator almost 10 days later. Andrew said that they had a family meeting with the hospital as she wasn't waking up despite many efforts made by the doctors. The doctors told her family that her lungs were completely destroyed.

She has been in serious condition since she woke up on Oct. 29. Andrew said that his mother is very religious and so are a lot of her friends, who have been praying for her. He is not that religious, but he is starting to believe that there's something that helped her to wake up.

He said that he talked to his mother last week, and she's able to move her arms and hands and can breathe for a few hours with oxygen support. He shared that usually, when somebody comes out of a coma like that, "they say that the patients have delirium where they're very confused. From day one, she hasn't experienced any of that." He said that she could still have setbacks, but the medical staff is helping her regain her range of motion by looking at getting her on a list for rehabilitation. She lost her muscle strength during the ordeal, and is getting physical therapy to help rebuild it.

The hospital bills are piling up, so her family has set up a GoFundMe page, and now the mother and son plan on getting vaccinated.