Truman Graduate, Standout Athlete Describes Battle That Nearly Killed Her

A standout student and athlete at Harry S. Truman High School in Bristol Township, Jaleezia Gibson was just starting to make her mark at Minnesota State University Mankato.

Then, in October of last year, came a harrowing and life-threatening battle with COVID-19 that has brought a halt – hopefully temporary – to all her college activities.

When the virus struck just weeks into her time at Mankato, Gibson spent close to two months in hospitals, undergoing continuous kidney dialysis and ultimately getting a new liver through transplant surgery. Now recovered, she is thinking about resuming her collegiate academic and athletic career, possibly in the spring.

“I don’t know if God is a sports fan or not, but I do know this: He loves a good comeback,” read an introduction to a Facebook video she recorded for nonprofit Chosen Causes.

It shows Gibson, one of the best female high school sprinters in Pennsylvania while at Truman, working out on a track.

She and her mother Reanee Stone talked about Gibson’s COVID-19 ordeal and their hopes for a comeback during a recent interview at a relative’s apartment in Bristol Township. They believe the virus was contracted from one of Gibson’s track teammates during a practice at Mankato.

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“It started with the sweats,” she said. “And it kept getting worse, with stomach pains, trouble breathing and headaches. I started throwing up and not eating.

“I was going through all this in my dorm room. I tried to get a COVID test through the college, but that was taking too long so after five days I finally just called the ambulance. When it came, I couldn’t even walk down the stairs. They had to carry me.”

A COVID-19 diagnosis was confirmed after Gibson arrived at a hospital in Mankato. She spent a short time there before being airlifted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Gibson, 19, went through a lengthy coma during her bout with the virus, and her mother was by her side for much of the time after getting a call about the illness and flying to Minnesota.

“She would have died if she hadn’t called the ambulance,” Stone said. “It was crazy, getting a call that your daughter is so sick, but I knew I had to get there.

“I just prayed every night, did her hair, and kept kissing her through the mask. She remembers me talking to her, and praying every night when she was in a coma.”

Gibson’s new liver came from a 49-year-old woman who was brain dead from a car accident.

“I told them in November, I’m taking my baby home,” Stone said.

After recovering, Gibson got herself fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Before I got sick, I was scared to get the shots,” she said. “I didn’t want to. I didn’t know what it would do to me.”

The recovery was grueling.

“I had to learn to walk again, eat by myself, do my hair, all that stuff,” said Gibson, a 2020 Truman graduate.

In high school, she ran the 100 and 200-meter sprints and also participated in other events. She finished fourth in the 100 at the 2018 state track championship meet, and sixth in 2019 and was also part of Truman’s gold medal winning four-by-100 relay team that year. She was also a straight A student at Truman, her mother said.

Sidelined from all college activities since the illness, Gibson – a business major – now muses about her comeback.

“I’m taking the year off and training with my high school coach, and I’ll see if I want to go back in the spring,” she said. “I’m not ready to go back yet but I think I will be. I think I just need more time.”

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