Surviving COVID-19

PATERSON  On Palm Sunday, Dan Venezia, a personal trainer, life coach and former pro baseball player, landed in the hospital, gasping for breath and trying to hold on to hope in God while fighting his toughest — and deadliest — opponent: COVID-19. A parishioner of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist here, he engaged in the fight of his life using his own “playbook” with strategies to strengthen his spirit, mind and body — in that order — to help defeat this fearsome enemy.

Venezia is now sharing that personal “playbook” in his new book, “Surviving COVID-19: How Faith, Focus, Fitness and Hydroxychloroquine Saved Me.” It reveals the most critical weapon in his arsenal: his rock-solid belief in a loving God who ultimately answered his prayers in conquering the coronavirus that nearly killed him. Assisted by writer Frederick Richardson, Venezia wrote the 216-page book so that his gripping personal story would give hope in these trying times to people who are fighting COVID-19 or other serious challenges. Published by Post Hill Press, the book is available on Amazon.com.

“COVID-19 took over my body and mind. It was faster than any 90-mile-an-hour fastball that I have ever faced and harder than any workout I’ve given myself. I drifted into the place where anxiety, doubt and fear come together,” Venezia, 48, told The Beacon last week. His epic battle against the virus broke a record at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood where he was treated with a short four-day stay, when the average was 7 to 14 days. “God never leaves us and brings us healing and wholeness. The book also is to help strength­en the faith of believers, bring the ‘lost sheep’ who strayed back to God and introduce God to people who do not know him,” he said.

Venezia’s walk through the valley of death started before he drove himself to Valley Hospital on Palm Sunday when he stayed in self quarantine for 10 days at home with COVID-19 symptoms, including a fever and dry cough. Once at the hospital, he followed the advice of a friend, Dr. Charles Thorne, a plastic surgeon from New York City, that he be admitted when his temperature spiked to 104 degrees and his oxygen levels sank dangerously low. Physically fit, Venezia was surprised that the virus took a toll on his body but thought that his mild case of asthma made him more susceptible, he writes.

Venezia recalled the homily that Msgr. Geno Sylva, rector of St. John’s, diocesan vicar for special projects and his friend, delivered during the video-streamed Mass that Palm Sunday morning, which he watched from home.

“During challenging times, we should never feel sorry for ourselves. Jesus never felt sorry for himself,” Venezia recalls Msgr. Sylva saying — words so powerful to him that he began “Surviving COVID-19” with them. He not only prayed without ceasing, but also learned to rely on the prayers of others. “I learned that Msgr. Geno led five thousand people, who tuned in by satellite to the cathedral’s online service, in prayers for me. I get teary just thinking about that! … As soon as a negative thought came in, I had an army of God’s soldiers, my angels, both living and dead, storming heaven’s gates for me and whispering in my ear,” he writes.

Armed with spiritual fitness, Venezia surpassed expectations by surviving that first night in the hospital. In no time, he turned his attention to physical fitness. He walked laps around his room, did chair squats, used a machine to expand his lung capacity and lifted water bottles like dumbbells, Venezia writes.

Sadly, Venezia could only see his family — Heather, his wife of 22 years and his sons: Ryan, 17, a Delbarton senior, and Skyler, 16, a Delbarton junior — through video chat. Nevertheless, this brief contact with them gave him “motivation for getting better.” It was on Holy Thursday that he declared victory over COVID-19 as he was being released from the hospital. He also credits the controversial drug Hydroxychloroquine for his quick recovery.

“Easter Sunday morning, I woke up to the sound of an angelic choir outside my window. A chorus of birds, singing as beautifully as any performance of Handel’s Messiah, greeted the dawn of Resurrection Day. The sun beamed through my curtains, and I felt its warmth. For the first time in three weeks, I truly felt better,” writes Venezia, whose fight with COVID-19 coincided with the Passion of Holy Week. “It was as if God himself had given a subtle, yet powerful, exhale. I took it in, with a breath that did not hurt. I looked up and smiled. I had so much to be thankful for,” writes Venezia.

In “Surviving COVID-19,” he shows readers some of the struggles and experiences earlier in life that prepared him for his battle against the virus: being raised by a single mother in Brooklyn, being cut from the minor-league team of the Minnesota Twins in 1995, surviving a head-on car crash at 26 years old and ultimately forgiving his absent father.

Msgr. Sylva called Venezia, member of St. John’s pastoral council, “a passionate person for the Lord who has absolute trust in him.”

Ever thankful to God, Venezia told The Beacon, “I’m blessed to share my story with the world. I feel like I got another swing of the bat in life. I’m confident that this is what God wants me to do at this moment. There is no doubt that the Holy Spirit was the breath behind every word.”