Lewis County Commissioner Gary Stamper’s condition is improving after being hospitalized for COVID-19 late last month.
The 67-year-old commissioner, who said this year he got vaccinated against the virus, is still on a ventilator in Vancouver’s PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center intensive care unit, although his partner Bobbi Barnes says he’s moving in the right direction. Medical staff are reducing his sedative medication and oxygen output from the ventilator.
Barnes’ Facebook updates on Stamper have garnered hundreds of responses, and were cited in a Wednesday news release from the county.
According to Barnes, Stamper is improving “ever so slowly,” and staff have relayed that recovering from the virus is “a long, slow, miserable process.”
The county’s release said Barnes and Stamper’s two daughters have been talking to him over the phone, given the hospital’s visitation restrictions.
“The Board of County Commissioners’ Office remains cautiously optimistic about Commissioner Stamper’s long-term health and continues to send thoughts and prayers as he begins the early steps in a slow recovery process,” the release reads.
