Amanda M. Usher | The Valdosta Daily TimesEric Cureton Sr., a COVID-19 survivor, speaks to members of the Lowndes Middle School staff during his homecoming celebration on March 13. Cureton is an eighth-grade teacher at Lowndes.

HAHIRA – Wanda Cureton was told twice that her husband, who had been in a battle with COVID-19 since January, was going to die.

She said she was told by hospital staff there was nothing further they could do for her husband, 60-year-old Eric Cureton Sr.

He is pastor of River Street Church of Christ, a Lowndes Middle School teacher and an Air Force veteran.

Wanda Cureton said she was told to “prepare for his death.”

Hearing those words pushed her into “another universe,” she said.

“My body was in one place but my mind was somewhere else,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine my husband not being with me anymore.”

The Hahira man and father of three suffered a fever, a struggle with breathing and was in a medically induced coma in South Georgia Medical Center’s intensive care unit, the family said.

Wanda Cureton entered an emotional state after being told he would die.

“I said, if he’s going to pass, may I at least come to say goodbye because I don’t want my husband to go without knowing that he was loved and appreciated and needed,” Wanda Cureton said.

Having been admitted on Jan. 8, Eric Cureton Sr. had been in the hospital for a short while before hospital staff allowed a visit.

Then, she was told he’d live if she made decisions that could save his life; but soon, she was told a second time that he would die.

She said she “fell to her knees” and couldn’t stop crying.

She said she couldn’t live without her husband of nearly 31 years.

Fighting the Virus

Eric Cureton Sr. said he’s not sure how he contracted the virus in January.

High blood pressure was his sole underlying medical condition.

His wife also tested positive for the virus, and after a quarantine, she received a negative test result.

Eric Cureton Sr. was at home when he first developed symptoms, the first being a 104-degree body temperature Jan. 4. A concerned Wanda Cureton took her husband to the emergency room at SGMC’s Smith Northview campus.

“A 104-fever, I was panicking,” Wanda Cureton said. “A 104-fever, you can’t stay in that for very long so that’s why I immediately took him to South Georgia.”

She said she knew her husband had COVID-19.

After breaking the fever, hospital staff sent the couple home but that wasn’t the end for Eric Cureton Sr.

On Jan. 8, after struggling to breathe, he returned to SGMC in an ambulance. He was admitted, not knowing he would not return home that day.

He spent some time in the intensive care unit at the center and was put in the coma to control his breathing and slow his rapid heart rate.

“I was concerned, of course, but I didn’t realize how sick I was,” he said.

He learned just how sick Feb. 2 when he was transferred to Select Medical in Tallahassee, Fla.

Aside from ICU, he had a peg tube in his stomach, was put on a ventilator and had a trach put in his throat. He had developed pneumonia in both lungs and suffered memory loss.

During his transport to Select, Eric Cureton Sr. suffered a stroke that affected his left side causing him to forget how to walk.

“I didn’t realize how bad a shape I was in,” he said. “Basically, from my understanding, the doctors had given up on me.”

While at Select, Eric Cureton Sr. spent some time in the ICU.

He said he slept for two weeks, attempting to come down off of medication. He finally woke up at the beginning of the third week, he said.

Due to the stroke that impacted his left side, he was discharged on Feb. 23 and sent to Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Tallahassee to start physical therapy.

“He had to learn how to walk. He had to learn how to talk,” Wanda Cureton said. “He had to learn how to do everything again.”

While fighting the virus, Eric Cureton Sr. said he lost 46 pounds.

“COVID just ravished my body. … The first time I stood up, it was like the weight of the world was on my shoulders,” he said.

Wanda Cureton said she remembered when she first saw him standing and taking steps in therapy. 

She was visiting him and did not expect what she saw.

“He just stood up so tall and so proud,” she said. ” … It was great. It was a wonderful moment.”

Fearing the Outcome

While in the hospital, Eric Cureton Sr. said he would hear about other patients on the COVID-19 floor that would succumb to the virus.

He was in the hospital during the same time SGMC reported 20 COVID-19-related deaths in nine days earlier this year.

“From time to time, the nurse would remind me – especially the ones that told me not to throw myself a pity party – they would remind me that there were others that didn’t make it,” he said.

Eric Cureton Sr. said he knew people that died of the virus.

“Your heart goes out to those that lost their loved ones,” he said.

Wanda Cureton said she stopped watching the news for fear that her husband would be counted in the death rate.

To remain connected to him, Wanda Cureton put an Alexa in her husband’s room that would play songs and Scriptures that reminded him of her and their marriage.

“It would say from time to time that we love you, keep fighting, come home to us,” she said.

Overcoming the Virus

Eric Cureton Sr. did come home.

He lived.

On March 13, the day after the pandemic’s anniversary, he returned home to a small outside celebration.

His wife honked the car horn as she drove him down the street and into their driveway at their Hahira house.

His coworkers from Lowndes Middle, family members and River Street church members erupted in applause and joyful shouts as his feet touched the ground.

Wanda Cureton streamed a sea of tears as she watched her husband hug others and express his words of gratitude.

On March 12, the day before his discharge, Eric Cureton Sr. said he missed the other educators and students at Lowndes Middle.

During his homecoming, co-workers expressed they missed him, too.

He said he is grateful for the medical staff that helped get him well and home.

“I’m very thankful that God has given us another chance,” Eric Cureton Sr. said. “I’m very grateful and thankful to God and everybody that had a part in this.”

He wanted his first meal out of his battle with COVID-19 to be hot dogs cooked on the Curetons’ fire pit and french fries baked in the oven.

He said he was looking forward to tending to his trees of fruit on his property.

But he will spend several months in physical therapy.

Wanda Cureton urges support for family members of loved ones enduring COVID-19. 

The Curetons will observe their 31st wedding anniversary March 24.

In late May, Eric Cureton Sr. said he can get his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I’m just grateful to God that He’s given me another day,” he said.