Family credits Chris Smith with saving COVID-19 patient’s life

@RepChrisSmith Thank you Chris for making this possible! My brother would not have survived Covid had it not been for you and your staff. You cut through tons of red tape for us, and we owe you a debt of gratitude!https://t.co/GcvrECXhCD

— Dan McNamara (@dpm120357) September 18, 2020

Kevin McNamara, a 60 year old attorney who lives in Avon-by-the Sea, was hospitalized with COVID-19 on March 28. Last Thursday, after 174 days of isolation in three different hospitals and a rehab facility, McNamara was sent home to continue his long road to recovery.

Kevin’s brother Dan, an engineer who lives in Essex County, credits Congressman Chris Smith with saving Kevin’s life.

“This has been a rollercoaster with one peak and valley after another, “Dan told MMM during a phone interview on Sunday evening. “We thought we were losing him. I don’t know that he would have pulled through if not for the multiple interventions of Chris Smith and his staff.”

Dan said the family reached out to Smith’s office while Kevin was a patient at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune. ” We couldn’t get any updates. We couldn’t reach him no one could tell us who his doctors were. We called Congressman Smith and ‘boom’, the hospital was calling us.

The family requested that Kevin be treated with therapeutic plasma. “Boom!,” Dan said. Congressman Smith got it done. After about two weeks, the plasma was becoming ineffective and the family requested that Kevin be treated with remdesivir, a drug that has shown promise in treating COVID-19 but had not yet been approved by the FDA. Dan said that Kevin’s doctors told the family that remdesivir may not be approved because Kevin had been treated with plasma. “Boom!” Smith got Kevin approved for remdesivir.

Smith was also instrumental in cutting red tape with Kevin’s health insurance company. Each time Kevin was to be transferred to another facility–he was in three hospitals before landing an Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange–the insurance company balked at approving the transfer. “Boom Boom Boom,” Dan said. Smith and his staff got it done.