Anita Striegel never felt sick from the coronavirus. She spent her 84th birthday battling the virus while at Saint Luke's Bishop Spencer Place and is humbled to have survived. 

“I feel like I am very, very fortunate,” said Striegel.

Administrator Frank Trimboli said she spiked a fever the day after she arrived and was moved into isolation, where she was monitored and tested for COVID-19.

After Striegel tested negative twice, Trimboli said staff wanted to celebrate her birthday and her healing. When he approached her about the idea, “her smile was fantastic,” he said.

“I asked her, ‘Well how are you doing today?’ ’I just beat COVID, how do you think I’m doing?’” he recalled her saying. “It was an absolute career-defining moment.”

Trimboli, who started his career as a nursing assistant, said as an administrator, “you tend to get distanced from the actual human interactions and the actual love and feelings that you have towards your residents and she reminded me ... as to why I got into this.”

Read Anita's full story with the The Kansas City Star: Woman beats COVID-19 while rehabilitating from fall, then celebrates 84th birthday.