Long Beach Covid-19 survivor: ‘I think it’s more like the flu now’

This Memorial Day weekend, Andre Marcell, of Long Beach, will be visiting his grandson Ellis August Eustis, who will be a year old, in California.

During the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, when Marcell was hospitalized, he wasn’t sure he would be around to celebrate Ellis’s birthday with his grandson and his daughter, Lauren Eustis, who will graduate from the University of Washington Medical School, in Seattle, that same weekend.

Photos of Marcell these days show a healthy, tanned man of 65 who is enjoying life. They contrast sharply with a shot of him in the spring of 2020, when he was suffering the worst that Covid-19 had to offer and was hospitalized for two weeks at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital in Oceanside.

Marcell had a high fever and intestinal problems. Things were so bad for him at the hospital that he called a friend and said he doubted he would ever live to see Lauren, then a medical student, marry. He wanted to have grandchildren, he said.

Now he does, and Andre and his wife, Lynn, will celebrate with their daughter and grandson next month. Marcell has also resumed working full-time at his company, Rip Tide Films, in Manhattan, which produces ad campaigns for children’s toys such as Transformers, G.I. Joe and Cabbage Patch Dolls. These days, he said, he manages the company from home, having found the commute to the city too time-consuming and unnecessary. He regularly travels to Los Angeles on business.

He does not dwell on his days at the hospital, but says he will never forget them, either.

In early 2020, he and Lynn took a ski trip to St. Anton, a resort in Austria. There, they and other guests heard and read about the pandemic that was spreading across the globe. At the time, however, Marcell said, it all seemed far away, and had little to do with their fun on the slopes.

The couple returned home in mid-March, eager to tell friends and relatives about their trip. But instead of landing at Kennedy Airport, the Marcells’ flight was diverted to Newark, where they spent hours in long lines, surrounded by people coughing.

Two days after getting back home to Long Beach, Marcell began feeling ill. He believed he had a simple bug, and paid it little attention. But the following day, he tested positive for the coronavirus. His fever was high, and he had intestinal problems.

His sister, Nicole Astil, a doctor in New Jersey, became alarmed, and insisted that he take a blood oxygen test. The concentration of oxygen in his blood was low, and he was admitted to the hospital. His wife also developed Covid, but she suffered mostly from a cough that lasted for weeks.

Marcell’s hospital stay was complicated by double pneumonia. He lost 30 pounds, and was down to an unhealthy 160 pounds when he was finally discharged two weeks after being admitted. Doctors wanted to put him on an oxygen tank, but in the midst of the crisis, they were in short supply. His daughter managed to locate one, saying at the time that his case was “severe.”

Recently he tested positive for Covid again, but this time, he said, it seemed more like a bad cold than anything else. He didn’t require hospitalization or any special treatment.

At home, Marcell began a course of physical therapy to regain his strength and put on weight. He is now back to a more healthy 179 pounds.

He wears a mask while flying commercially and at other times as well, but says he is not a slave to it. His wife still wears a mask at indoor events, and Marcell says he fully understands that people must make their own decisions.

Does he think Covid is over? “That’s a tough question,” Marcell said.  “I think it’s more like the flu now.” Many who suffered through serious bouts with the disease, he said, were “traumatized” by the experience, and he understands that, too.

But having gone though it himself, Marcell has other thoughts and feelings as well — mostly a deeper appreciation for life.

“I do appreciate things more,” he said. “I have more of a desire to live life to the fullest. I also don’t sweat the small stuff anymore. I try to be more Zen. I don’t honk the horn in my car as much.”