Husband and wife COVID-19 patients released within a day of each other

Glen Carbon couple Clifford McIntyre, 49, and Casonda McIntyre, 47, have both successfully beat the Coronavirus (COVID-19) after stays at HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in O’Fallon, IL. Hospital staff held special

Clifford was admitted to St. Elizabeth’s on April 9. He spent five days in the Intensive Care Unit where he was intubated for two days. After showing improvements he was moved to the Medical/Surgical floor for the rest of his stay. He was the first patient who had been intubated at St. Elizabeth’s to then get extubated and subsequently discharged.

Casonda was admitted on April 10 and stayed in a different area of the hospital than her husband.
Upon Clifford’s discharge, hospital colleagues and his family greeted him at the discharge lounge with claps, cheers and signs. He was also taken to a window of the room Casonda was in so they could see each other for the first time since they entered the hospital.


Kim Presson, RN, at St. Elizabeth’s was a main caregiver to Casonda during her stay at St. Elizabeth’s. She was taking care of her while her husband was intubated, the day he was extubated and the day he was discharged. She was more than her nurse, she was the informational connection in sharing how Clifford was doing. She was extremely happy to see Casonda discharged and reunited with her husband and family on Saturday.

“I know that as a nurse there will be time later in my career that I will need to dig deep again in service to my patients and this will be the motivational experience that I will reflect on,” Presson said.

St. Elizabeth’s Hospital is proud of the dedicated providers caring for both COVID-19 patients and the many other patients with health care needs in our facility, and is prepared to continue to respond to any and all developments related to COVID-19. The public is also encouraged do their part:

• Stay home! Honor Governor Pritzker’s mandatory order to stay home and travel only for essential services.

• Stay 6 feet apart. Social distancing can work if we are all practicing it.

• Wash your hands. Your most effective protection is washing your hands frequently with soap and water for 20 seconds. Wash your hands before you eat so no germs travel from your hands to your mouth;

• Don’t touch your face.

• If you are sick, stay home from work or other activities where you can pass illnesses along to others, particularly those with compromised immune systems.