Former Stillwater Superintendent Survives Severe COVID-19 Case

STILLWATER, MN — An 82-year-old former Stillwater Area Public Schools superintendent returned home last month after more than seven weeks of treatment for a severe breakthrough case of COVID-19.

David Wettergren, who led Stillwater schools for more than a decade, was admitted to St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood in late August after testing positive for COVID-19, his wife, Gretchen Stein, wrote on his CaringBridge profile.

Wettergren is fully vaccinated but tested positive five days after first experiencing symptoms of a high fever, Stein wrote.

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Wettergren told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press he believes he contracted the virus during a trip to California that took him through the Los Angeles International Airport. Doctors told Stein that Wettergren likely contracted the coronavirus from someone who was not vaccinated, the report states.

Wettergren spent almost five weeks in St. John’s Hospital, including 23 days in the intensive care unit, before he was transferred in mid-September to receive transitional care at a facility in White Bear Lake, Stein wrote.

The former schools chief returned to his North Oaks home Oct. 19 to continue his recovery. Wettergren told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press he was “so happy” to be home after nearly eight weeks of treatment for COVID-19, which included 11 days on a ventilator.

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Stein said doctors told her Wettergren would have died if he was not vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Stein has been documenting Wettergren’s treatment and recovery on CaringBridge, posting photos of him coming home, walking at the Tamarack Nature Center and Sucker Lake, and going to his first University of Minnesota football game of the season.

Stein wrote Nov. 17 that Wettergren has lost hearing in his right ear since his battle with COVID-19, but “David is amazing on so many levels with his emotional, spiritual and physical strength.”

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“Recovering from Covid was the first phase,” Stein wrote on CaringBridge. “He is now working to recover from the effects of the days of lying in a coma, the impact of less than optimal oxygen, and all that went first into keeping him alive.”

“His joy, and mine, come from knowing that we are in God’s healing hands surrounded by the love and caring of so many,” Stein wrote, thanking friends and family for their support over the last three months.

Click here to visit David Wettergren’s CaringBridge profile, where his wife, Gretchen Stein, posts regular updates about his recovery from a severe breakthrough case of COVID-19.