On December 31, 2021, Berks County resident Cory Heckman, age 31, was admitted to Pottstown Hospital for treatment of COVID-19. The severity of the disease led to an extended hospital stay where he was cared for in the Intensive Care Unit with severe COVID pneumonia and neuropathy that required a tracheostomy to help him breathe. One hundred and forty-nine days later, Cory went home under his own power.