LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — All the new cases of COVID-19 in the area mean people will be facing different levels of recovery. There can be lingering effects for people with only mild symptoms. 

Bobby Green knows what life is like afterward for those who get the most sick. The 55-year-old Lee’s Summit man spent three weeks at St. Luke’s East Hospital on a respirator; in all, a month in intensive care after being admitted March 30.

Six months after returning home, he said he’s only now starting to feel like himself again.

He came home to a parade of well wishers in May after spending several days at a progressive care rehab facility.

Green, an avid golfer who had never been hospitalized before being infected by the coronavirus, said he felt lucky to be alive. But he wondered if he’d walk without a cane or enjoy the life he was used to again.

“God heard their prayers, and he spared my life and he kept me here. But it was bittersweet because I didn’t know if I was ever going to regain activities and usage of my limbs,” he said.

Green said at first he couldn’t cook for himself and needed assistance to use the restroom. 

“His daughters and myself we kept saying, ‘You’re doing good. You’re doing good,’ even though he may not have thought he was. It’s a long process,” his wife Wanda Green said.

After months of building up strength to walk easily and be on his feet, he returned to work in October.

“I was really shocked and surprised how long it’s taken me to get to where I was before and still not to where I want to be for a complete recovery. But just to be able to do the things I am now and enjoy life again,” Bobby Green said. 

A co-worker at Unilever in Independence died from COVID-19 while he was hospitalized. So did Green’s mother. During his recovery he celebrated the birth of his second grandson and his 30th wedding anniversary.