>> reporter: vera middleton was so sick doctors considered putting her on a ventilator. she refused opting instead to pray. >> i praise him from now. >> reporter: she is getting everything but the ventilator and improving. the 66-year-old great grandmother from a small town, she says she and her husband talked about getting vaccinated but decided against it. do you have any idea where you got covid? >> yes. my granddaughter had gotten sick and just went through everybody. >> reporter: kentucky seeing its biggest covid-19 surge yet. cases and hospitalizations spiking sharply to levels never seen before. deaths, too, on the rise. hospitals everywhere just trying to keep up. >> it's defeating to put another person on the ventilator.