Rita Hinners of Seymour waves at family and friends as they drive by her home during a surprise parade Saturday.  Lori McDonald

The first known Jackson County resident to contract COVID-19 has beaten the odds.

When Rita Hinners of Seymour saw a police car leading a line of cars past her house Saturday evening, she thought there was a funeral somewhere.

She quickly realized it was a surprise parade to celebrate her coming home June 10 after being hospitalized for 82 days and on a ventilator for 19 days for the coronavirus.

“That afternoon, we had company over,” Hinners said. “Then Sonya asked if we wanted to go outside and suggested we take the chairs out front.”

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So Hinners went along with her daughter’s suggestion and later found out why she wanted to go out to the driveway.

Sonya Forwalt is Tom and Rita Hinners’ daughter and helped orchestrate the celebration along with the rest of Rita’s family.

Sonya lives in Holton with her husband, David. They have three daughters, Elizabeth, Elisha and Emily.

Sonya’s brother, Brian Hinners, lives in Batesville with his wife, Melissa. He wanted to be there for the celebration but had to work. He and his wife have three children, Kole, Kris and Kaylin.

Rita does not remember much about her weeks spent at the hospital, but Forwalt recalls almost every detail.

“Mom was at her sister Sharon’s in Indianapolis on March 14 and 15, and her other sister, Paulette, was there, too,” Forwalt said. “Then coming home that Sunday, March 15, she called me and said she didn’t feel right.”

Rita’s throat hurt, and she sounded stuffy, so she didn’t go to work the next day at the Jackson County Courthouse, where she works in the auditor’s office.

“I called her Tuesday and she said she was going to try to go to the doctor,” Forwalt said. “Then Dr. Michelle Michael tested her for the flu because at that time, they were not testing anybody for COVID-19 because they did not yet have tests for the virus.”

The flu test results were negative, but Forwalt said the rest of that week, she knew something was still not right with her mother.

“I was off work on that Friday, March 20, and called my sister-in-law, Melissa,” Forwalt said. “I told her I’d just gotten off the phone with Mom and she sounded horrible and she was wheezing, and I thought she might have pneumonia again.”

Forwalt then called Dr. Michael, who after calling and speaking with Rita directly recommended she go to the emergency room.

Hinners and her husband, both age 73, were admitted to the hospital in Seymour — Rita for pneumonia and Tom for low hemoglobin.

“It was March 20 when they tested Mom for COVID at the hospital, and I was able to talk to her Friday night and Saturday morning,” Forwalt said. “Saturday morning, my husband and I got up and went to Mom and Dad’s to get their cellphones and chargers and dropped them off at the hospital.”

After that, the Forwalts were heading to North Vernon, but before they got there, the hospital called and said Rita was being put on a ventilator because her oxygen level was so low. That Tuesday, her COVID test came back positive.

Her sisters later had some symptoms but were not tested for COVID-19.

“Dad was released the next night after he was admitted and was not tested for the virus until March 30, and his results came back positive on April 1,” Forwalt said. “His symptoms were not as bad as Mom’s. He said he just felt like he had the flu with some body aches and a little bit of fever and loss of appetite.”

Tom’s symptoms were mild enough that he quarantined at home for two weeks, and people dropped off groceries and food for him.

At that time, if people didn’t really need to be in the hospital, they were sent home. Forwalt said she called her dad to check on him about four or five times a day.

“To help Mom, a breathing tube and feeding tube were placed on April 9 at Schneck, and because of that, they did a lot of what they call proning,” Forwalt said. “That consisted of them turning her, which took two hours and required five people.”

Forwalt said they did the proning because when a person lays on his or her back, everything is lying on top of the lungs, but when lying on the stomach, that allows the lungs to expand more. That’s the method that worked best for her mother.

Around March 25, Rita’s family had their first opportunity to video chat with her, even though she was still not alert. They talked to her just like she could hear and understand them, and that’s how the doctors told them to do it.

“We would have video chats with the doctor and then with Mom, where Kelly and Nikki (Schneck staff) would bring the iPad in and hold it by her bedside,” Forwalt said. “We could talk to Mom or play music for her, so Kelly and Nikki were my lifesavers.”

Forwalt said when her mother went to therapy at Schneck for the first time last Thursday, she texted Kelly, who came down to see her mom, and then at the next therapy session, three more of the girls from the Schneck intensive care unit came down just to see her mother and visit.

“Mom was at Schneck until April 22, and that’s when she was moved to Kindred Hospital in Indianapolis,” Forwalt said. “That’s the first time we had got to see her since March, and we knew she was being transported that day but didn’t know we’d get to see her.”

Dr. D. Ryan Stone had called Forwalt at 2:15 p.m. that day and told her the transport was going to be there at 3 p.m., so she drove over and picked her dad up, and they went to the Schneck ambulance bay.

They got to see Rita, but she doesn’t remember anything from that day.

Forwalt said Kindred is a long-term acute care hospital, and the reason her mom had to go there was for her tracheostomy tube and gastrostomy or g-tube.

“When you go from talking to your mom every day, then to suddenly stop, was very hard,” Forwalt said. “Before this, there were times when she or I would be going to work or on the way home and we would talk on the phone.”

Forwalt also would email or text her mother, so they were in communication every day.

“Nobody understands and it’s like nobody wants to take it (COVID-19) seriously,” Forwalt said. “Until you have somebody that is affected by it, you don’t think about it.”

Rita’s family is not sure where she contracted the virus, but they have an inclination.

“Mom and I both went to see my niece’s basketball tourney in Lawrenceburg on March 9, and there were people from there who came down with the virus,” Forwalt said. “Not only people from Lawrenceburg, but a lot of people from Batesville became infected, and that’s where my niece lives.”

Rita said she doesn’t understand why she was infected, but her daughter and her daughter-in-laws’ parents also were at the tourney but did not get sick.

“I’ve thought about it this whole entire time, and this virus picks and chooses, in my opinion,” Forwalt said. “Mom was not in ill health, but she usually gets bronchitis once a year, and that might possibly be part of the reason why, and she’s prone to pneumonia, too.”

Forwalt said May 12 when her mother got the speaking device for her trach, that was when they could really start seeing progress.

On May 20, she was moved to Columbus Regional Health for rehabilitation, and her tubes were removed at Kindred just prior to that move.

Rita said she remembers her stay in Columbus and doing physical, occupational and speech therapy. She used to cough frequently when trying to speak, but that has gotten better.

“At first the therapy was hard to do, but there were some things I had to do before they would discharge me, so I worked for that,” Rita said. “Now, I’m eating and getting around a lot better than I was, and one of these days, I’m not going to need this walker anymore.”

Forwalt said when her mom was in the hospital and they couldn’t see her, she felt like that was the Lord’s way of saying, “Hey, I’ve got her, so you take care of everything else on the outside.”

So that’s what she did, by taking care of her dad and making sure she had some type of communication with the hospitals and nurses every day.

“My faith has gotten me through these difficult times by believing in God,” Rita said. “Also, knowing that I had so many family and friends praying for me.”

Rita’s legs are still too weak to push the accelerator to drive a vehicle, and if she wants to spray some cologne, she’s not able to hold the bottle and spray at the same time.

Forwalt said it’s time for her mom to stop worrying about everyone else and concentrate on taking care of herself and getting stronger.

Rita said she had planned on retiring at the end of this year, but her Family and Medical Leave Act ends Aug. 3, and so she’s done and will not be going back to work.

“This October, I would have been at the Jackson County Courthouse for 22 years,” she said. “I worked in the auditor’s office, and what I’ll miss most are the people.”

Rita was raised in Ripley County in the town of Napoleon, where she worked at the courthouse for a little more than 14 years.

Her husband’s job as a driver for Walmart brought them to Seymour in 1997, and he retired from there.

“It feels wonderful to be back home now, and I love sitting out on my back porch,” Rita said. “This whole time, there were only two days in Columbus when they took me outside for a little bit.”

Rita said she feels a lot better than when she came home last week, and she continues her physical therapy two days a week at Schneck.

“When I saw all the people driving by the house on Saturday in the parade, I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “That’s the first time I’ve cried throughout all of this.”

Rita said she just received a card from her son, and the verse on front said something to the effect of she had been given more time, so don’t waste it.

She said she doesn’t plan to.