RAYMORE, Mo. — As cases rise across the country and in the Kansas City area, one family in Raymore is sharing side-by-side stories of survival after a mother and daughter were both hospitalized with COVID-19.
Cindy Mager noticed she wasn’t feeling well after a trip to Colorado.
"A day or two later, I start coughing up blood. And so Mom says, you’ve got COVID. I do not have COVID, this isn’t a symptom. So I went to the hospital, they thought I had a pulmonary embolism," she said.
A positive test confirmed the worst fears for Cindy, a Type 1 diabetic.
"I immediately start crying, I ask the nurse am I going to die?" she recalled.
She was transferred to Research Medical Center, away from her mother Saundra, who was first diagnosed with cancer in 2012. Shortly after her daughter was hospitalized, she too tested positive.
"I had open-heart surgery in 2012, so I’ve had a battle from that to this," Saundra Kay Mount recalled.
She too feared the worst.
"I actually thought I was gonna die and so did they," the mother recalled.
The blessing of being alive today is not lost on her.
"I’m the most blessed person in the world," Saundra said, fighting back tears. "I love my family, my home, and everybody."
Saundra's team went to work, treating her with steroids, plasma, and Remdesivir. She received those treatments a few rooms away from her daughter.
"We were able to get her in there. That made me feel so much better," Cindy said.
Cindy thought she was in the clear after receiving plasma and steroid treatment, but her oxygen levels dropped.
"Two days later, I can’t breathe. I just can’t catch my breath," Cindy explained. She endured two hospital stays - but Cindy and Saundra both beat the virus.
"I feel like me and Mom are proof you can survive COVID. You can come out the other side feeling better," Cindy said.
She and her mother are grateful to spend the holidays with their big family.
"They’re going to have a really nice Christmas because we’re here," she said.
They're also grateful for their health.
"I feel like a new person. I feel 40-some years younger. I’m gonna go dancing again," Saundra said with a smile.
