Last year, State Sen. Randy Price (R-Opelika) had a significant COVID-19 scare that threatened his life and resulted in a long-term hospital stay.
Price has since recovered and acknowledges how fortunate he is to have done so.
During an appearance on Alabama Public Television on Thursday, Price discussed his near-death experience, which he said began with him not realizing how serious his case of the coronavirus would become.
“I know that God had a plan, and that’s why that I’m here,” he said. “I’ll never forget when I was carried to Lanier Hospital to start my recovery, as far as after I had come off the vent, one of the hospital staff people made the comment to me that said that they had just reviewed my records, and they said, ‘I don’t know what God’s got planned for you, but it is big because you’re not supposed to be here.’ But I’m very thankful that I’m still part of his plan.”
“But yes, I remember the things that — there were several things that happened when they were getting ready to put me on the vent,” Price continued. “That morning, I was not feeling very well. And I did call our oldest son, and I told him to look after your mom. I called my wife, Oline, and I told her it had been a good ride. And she told me the ride wasn’t over. Not long after that, I did code. I coded. But, once again, God had a plan. The doctor that had been paged to come to my room was actually standing in my room. And so, they brought me back around, successfully put me on the vent, stayed on the vent for a little over a week, and they actually took me off the vent. That lasted for about a day. And they made a decision to put me back on the vent. That decreases those chances even more as far as you coming off of that vent. But I was fortunate that I was able to come off and continue to move forward.”
The Lee County Republican lawmaker said he was not looking to “twist” arms to get people to take the COVID-19 vaccine. However, he said he would encourage those to weigh the data before making a decision.
“[W]hat I’ve tried to say to people, and I’ve spoken to several different groups,” he said. “And what I say — I hope they’ll listen to the real meaning of what I’m trying to say. I’m not going to twist your arm and tell you to take the vaccine. But what I am going to ask you to do is I’m going to ask you to look on the right of you and the left of you of people that you love, and think about once again before you make that decision of whether or not you take the vaccine. It is the right thing to do.”
“I’ve had the opportunity in the last several weeks to meet with quite a few of our different hospital administrators, especially in my district,” Price added. “And all you’ve got to do is look at the research itself. All it takes is to look at the number of people that are in ICUs that are vaccinated and the number of people that are not. I encourage people to please — for your loved ones and yourself, get vaccinated.”
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.
