Fall graduate overcomes near-death battle with COVID-19 to complete nursing degree

December 22, 2023

When Wesley Fischer crossed the stage during Fall 2023 Commencement at Georgia Southern University to acknowledge the completion of his degree in nursing, it was a full-circle moment. Just two years prior, Fischer was unsure of his future in school, and at one point, unsure whether he would live. 

Fischer, a former firefighter and EMT, and a veteran Navy corpsman, was well into his nursing school journey during that fall 2021 semester when he recalled being on the Armstrong Campus for the last time that year. 

“A few days after that I got really sick,” he said. “I went to the ER and ended up in a coma just a few days later.” 

Fischer would go on to spend more than 100 days in the hospital as he battled COVID-19. While hospitalized, Fischer went into kidney and liver failure at one point, and at another time had to be resuscitated after going into cardiac arrest.

“A couple of the doctors were persuasive and persistent and tried to get my wife to pull life support, but she absolutely refused,” he said. “This was when no visitors were allowed in hospitals. The chaplains at the hospital started calling her on FaceTime, and that’s when I started showing signs of life again.” 

Fischer would go on to experience numerous other complications while in the hospital, which became his driving force on his road to recovery. 

“I wanted to come back and make sure that a patient never had to go through what I went through,” he said. “As soon as I could get my wife to get my phone to me, I started messaging my instructors and asking what the procedures were for getting back in school. They didn’t want to talk about that, they just wanted to let me know how happy they were I was alive.” 

After learning he just needed to be cleared by a doctor to return to the classroom, Fischer worked fervently toward that goal. 

“I vigorously pushed myself through physical therapy routines that I had previously used to work with patients. I went to the Chatham Aquatic Center and got myself moving in the water,” he said. “I was able to get myself cleared two weeks before school started the following August.”

Along the way, Fischer received unwavering support from the nursing faculty at Georgia Southern and classmates in his nursing cohort. 

“I had classmates who tracked down my mom through Facebook to check on me,” he said. “Within 24 hours of being home, I had visitors who were nursing students who would come either visit and help me get around or ask me to help them study. I’m still in touch with some of them today.” 

After transitioning back to the classroom, Fischer faced more hurdles. 

“Along the way, we discovered that I had some memory issues,” he explained. “My long-term memory is perfectly intact. It’s just short-term memory I have a hard time with. Any new material I hadn’t heard before takes a couple more times hearing for it to sink in, so I had to listen to recordings of lectures three or four times to get things to sink in.” 

During his clinical rotations, Fischer learned that being in a hospital setting triggered a different part of his memory and he was able to better retain information. 

“One of my professors at the time started giving me mini-lectures while I was in clinicals and that way it would sink in while I was working,” he said. “It really helped.”

Without the support of faculty, Fischer admits he would not have been able to readjust to his program as easily. 

“The faculty and staff we have at Georgia Southern in the nursing program make their own daily sacrifices to make this program a success for the students, and if we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t have a program,” Fischer said. “I think that’s one thing a lot of students don’t understand is that behind the scenes, professors do so much for the students.” 

Fischer, who will be 40 on Dec. 30, also offered advice to traditional-aged students. 

“Do what you’re supposed to, when you’re supposed to, how you’re supposed to, and that will keep you out of all sorts of trouble,” he said. 

While Fischer is waiting to hear back from several job opportunities, he remains grateful. 

“I am so thankful for everyone the Lord has put in my life to make this happen,” he said. “I’m excited about the opportunities that have presented themselves for the future. I still don’t know exactly what I’m going to do. Right now I’m just proud to be finishing this one and I’m going to miss all the people I went through it with.”