Jan 25, 2021
GUTTENBERG — Cheers and Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” rang through the halls of Guttenberg Municipal Hospital on Jan. 15 as staff bid adieu to their longest COVID-19 patient.
Royce Hansel, 76, of Elkader, was released after a 65-day stay. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Nov. 8 and checked into the hospital just days later.
“I feel super,” Hansel told the Telegraph Herald as he was preparing to leave. “I couldn’t ask for better people to take care of me. I can’t say enough about them.”
Hospital staff lined the halls and held homemade signs as Hansel was pushed in a wheelchair to the hospital lobby. Everyone then went outside to see Hansel as he was driven away with an ambulance escort. He still had a breathing tube in his nose as he left.