Skip navigation

Timothy Heaton, 61, was two weeks away from retiring after serving 25 years as a Suffolk County Corrections Officer. Then, the Medford, NY, resident was hospitalized with a severe case of COVID-19. Over five months of battling COVID-19, which required a medically induced coma, Heaton's family was told three different times to prepare for the worse.

But Heaton is a fighter. After coming out of the coma, he began a slow progression toward recovery. He was released from a local hospital and then transferred to Catholic Health's St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson, NY, for extensive inpatient rehabilitation. He had to learn basic physical and occupational tasks all over again. Heaton went from not being able to walk five feet, to now walking over 100 feet without oxygen assistance.

Now that Heaton has been discharged, he's looking forward to spending time with his family. He's most excited to spend time with his wife of 35 years and his first granddaughter Hailey who was born during his battle with COVID-19.

“COVID-19 hit me like a ton of bricks…The only thing we don’t have enough of is time…Time is precious,” said Heaton.

timothy heaton, family
browser error

Browser Error

Diagnosis: Our website no longer supports this web browser.

Treatment: Please use one of the following browsers for the best possible outcome.

  • edge web browser iconEdge
  • chrome web browser iconChrome
  • safari web browser iconSafari
  • firefox web browser iconFirefox