You’re doggone right he’ll be back

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2020 (1928 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the past 25 years, Frank Adam has struggled to get thousands of jittery dogs and cats to look into the lens of his camera for festive holiday photos.

This year, he’s simply struggling to breathe.

This would have marked the 26th year the owner of Adam York Photography has volunteered his skills at the annual Pet Pics with Santa Paws fundraisers in support of the Winnipeg Humane Society.

But the surging global COVID-19 pandemic killed a holiday event beloved by Winnipeg pet owners — and it almost killed Frank, too.

Frank, 59, is recovering at home after a terrifying two-week stay in hospital, during which he developed double pneumonia, lung scarring and lost 20 pounds.

During those two weeks, his family — wife Amanda and daughter Kya, 15 — tested positive for the virus, as did his sister’s family of five, as well as their mother, Hildegard, 88, who died in hospital after becoming infected.

“I’m doing OK,” he insisted, audibly struggling to catch his breath during a telephone chat with this columnist, who has been his Santa at the Pet Pics fundraisers in each of the last 13 years.

“I’m on oxygen as we speak,” he said, his normally clear voice raspy and strained. “The only time I’m not on oxygen is when I have to get in the shower. I have the prongs in my nose during the day. I’d be wheezing and huffing without the oxygen.”

It all began with minor cold symptoms in late October and Frank decided to get tested for the novel coronavirus on Oct. 23. “On the 22nd, the day before I got tested, I had this little cough. I thought it was just part of my allergies,” he said. “On the 23rd, the cough got worse and worse so I thought I’d better do something.”

After being tested, he isolated in his basement and waited five days until the test results came back positive. It was a rapid downhill slide from that point.

“I progressively got worse at home,” he recalled. “I lost my sense of taste, I lost my sense of smell. Fever, chills, body aches all over and very weak. The last few days I could barely stand up on my own.”

On Halloween, he was assessed at a clinic, then rushed by ambulance to Grace Hospital. “I lost 20 pounds,” he said. “I’m down to 174 (pounds) now. I had a high fever for a week and they couldn’t keep me hydrated, so they put me on an IV. I was on steroids. Oh, God, I can’t even remember what else.”

Normally run off his feet over the busy holiday season, Frank has no idea when he’ll be able to return to work as a photographer. Struggling the three metres to and from his hospital bathroom left him exhausted.

“My doctor said this could be a lengthy recovery,” he said. “I had double pneumonia and lung scarring. The biggest thing about this virus is they just don’t know enough about it. They can’t tell you what’s going to happen.

“That’s why I’m on oxygen 24/7. That’s why I’m having trouble breathing. It’s hard, really hard.”

His family is convinced Frank became infected when he and his sister visited their mom on Oct. 19 at Victoria Hospital, where she was recovering after suffering a fall related to her dementia. They say she became sick after a patient who tested positive was transferred from St. Boniface Hospital to Victoria and wasn’t kept in isolation. She tested positive on Oct. 22.

“That was my last visit with my mom,” he said.

Over the next few days, Frank’s immediate family and his sister’s family tested positive, though none became as sick as he did. “My sister made an amazing recovery. She was pretty sick, but she pulled through,” he said.

The most devastating blow came on Nov. 8, when his mother passed away after being transferred to St. Boniface. At the time, Frank was lying in his own hospital bed battling the virus.

“One family member, my niece, she was able to go with her iPhone the day mom passed away,” he recalled, his voice breaking. “She was in full PPE gear and she was able to hold mom’s hand, and our entire immediate family was on FaceTime with mom. We were on when it happened, when mom passed away.

“I was very thankful my niece was able to do that. Very thankful. It made such a difference as far as closure is concerned. As the oldest child, I figured that would be my job — to hold her hand and be by her bedside in that moment.

“I couldn’t be a physical part of it, but I was a virtual part of it. I’m hopeful that mom heard our goodbyes and some of the stories we shared with her.”

Discharged Nov. 14, Frank said he feels blessed to be recovering at home, and has nothing but praise for the care he received at Grace Hospital.

“The biggest thing my roommates and I missed was our daily fix of Tim’s,” he said, chuckling. “My doctor took it on herself to go downstairs and buy everyone in our room a Tim’s. She got me a steeped tea and the rest coffee. It was like a gift from God. It made me feel kind of human again.”

It won’t surprise any of the thousands of Winnipeggers whose pets Frank has photographed over the past 25 Christmas seasons, but his thoughts quickly turned to missing Pet Pics this year because of COVID-19.

“It just feels so weird not doing Pet Pics this year,” he said. “It feels like something is missing. I’m not complete or something. In lieu of the event this year, I’m hoping people make a donation to the humane society because I’m sure they need it more than ever.”

But he vows to be back in Santa’s Village in 2021, because he can’t wait to see Santa, as portrayed by an overweight newspaper columnist, coated in a thick layer of cat hair and dog drool.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca