Long COVID required life-saving lung transplant for Long Island pastor

The Rev. Benjamin Thomas has a warm smile and a manner that puts people at ease.

But one subject riles the East Meadow resident.

“When someone tells me COVID is [just] a fever, I have a problem,” Thomas said. “I get so angry.”

Thomas contracted COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, was hospitalized for more than 100 days, on a ventilator for 54 days and spent six weeks in a medically induced coma. His wife, Sara, and daughter, Abigail, were told multiple times he was likely to die.

Thomas survived, but his lungs were so scarred he needed supplemental oxygen to help him breathe. When the extra oxygen was no longer enough, doctors told him he needed a double lung transplant.

“It affected my future, my destiny — everything,” he said.

It’s been five years since COVID-19 cut a deadly swath through the United States, filling emergency rooms and morgues with its victims. Early on, there were no vaccines and few treatment options. More than 1.2 million people in the United States have died from the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The World Health Organization says 7.1 million deaths worldwide were reported.

The number of people dying of COVID-19 has declined sharply each year since the pandemic began, from 5,561 on Long Island in 2020 to a provisional total of 341 last year, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. More than 11,100 Nassau and Suffolk county residents have died from COVID-19 as of the end of 2024, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

The early days of the pandemic were “scary, crazy and disheartening,” said Dr. Scott Scheinin, Mount Sinai Health System’s director of lung transplantation, who performed Thomas’ lung transplant.

“We saw a lot of previously healthy patients develop pretty significant lung disease,” he said. “I’ve been in practice since 1992 and it was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Over time, vaccinations and natural immunity from people previously infected have helped slow the severity of COVID-19. But elderly people and those with underlying health issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart conditions continue to be at higher risk of getting seriously ill.

“The disease has changed … it’s not what it was,” Scheinin said.

Meanwhile, doctors are still grappling with patients whose injuries are so severe that they have continued to have fatigue, breathing problems and other symptoms years after their COVID-19 infection.

Long COVID, as defined by the CDC, is a condition that is present for at least three months after an infection with symptoms that range from brain fog and fatigue to shortness of breath and changes in smell or taste.

While Thomas is an example of someone still feeling the impact of a very serious infection that damaged his lungs, long COVID can also happen with people whose infections were mild.

The rates of long COVID have remained steady, at about 7% of cases or roughly 17 million people, said Dr. Sritha Rajupet, director of the Stony Brook Medicine Post-COVID Clinic.

Most people recover in the first three years, she said, adding about 5% of people don’t recover.

“That’s hard for people to hear,” Rajupet said. “This is a life-changing illness.”

Lungs destroyed by COVID-19

Dr. Robin Varghese, director of cardiovascular critical care for the Mount Sinai Health System, remembers the first time he heard about Thomas. He was on a ventilator at a Long Island hospital and was placed on his stomach — known as a prone position — in an effort to help with his oxygen flow.

“Every time they tried to turn him over, his oxygen levels would drop,” Varghese, a cardiovascular surgeon, said. “Because he was on his stomach for so long, his face had a big sore on it … he was so unstable, we couldn’t transfer him right away.”

Varghese said the COVID-19 infection had “destroyed the architecture” of Thomas’ lungs.

“He was one of the sickest patients I’ve had that didn’t die,” Varghese said. “I gave everything I had, my team gave everything they had. He’s a pastor and I’m a man of faith … at one point, we put it in the good Lord’s hands.”

Thomas started to make progress little by little and was released from the hospital in July 2020. He slowly returned to his life, preaching at the Queens Church of God and even driving with the help of the oxygen tank he had to carry everywhere. Over time, his lung function continued to decrease, requiring higher levels of oxygen. 

“He had increasing oxygen requirements, decreasing exercise tolerance, and based upon his pulmonary function test, it was apparent that he now had a chronic lung disease that wasn’t going to get better on its own,” Scheinin said.

Scheinin and his team decided Thomas needed a double lung transplant. Finding a match, however, was not easy.

“He was waiting about eight months and he was deteriorating,” Scheinin said. “We changed the listing saying he would take a single lung if it became available first.” 

In February 2023, surgeons replaced Thomas’ right lung.

“It was the right decision,” Scheinin said. “He’s off oxygen and doing great.”

A few months later, Thomas was able to attend the graduation of Abigail, now 21, from St. John’s University, without an oxygen tank. 

“It was beautiful,” he said.

Thomas said he can do much more since his transplant but still doesn’t have the strength to do some of the household work he loves, such as shoveling snow and setting up the Christmas lights. He also has to monitor the weather because very hot or very cold weather can cause breathing problems.

He hopes his story inspires others with chronic illness who may be depressed and angry.

“I still suffer,” Thomas said. “And if anyone says [COVID] is like a fever, I say, ‘No, my friend, it changed my destiny.'”

But, he added: “A positive approach and faith helps. Life is beautiful. Even if something happened to your life, make the best of it … Your purpose is not done.”

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.