WILMINGTON, N.C. — A Wilmington woman is raising money to supply Amazon Alexa devices in hospital rooms after surviving COVID-19.

What You Need To Know

  • Megan Pearson is fundraising to put an Alexa device in hospital rooms
  • Her goal is to raise just over $27,000 for 228 rooms
  • The deadline is Sunday, the day that marks one year from Pearson’s discharge

A year ago, Megan Pearson was in the hospital for COVID-19 and pneumonia. Doctors diagnosed her with acute respiratory failure and put her into a medically induced coma for nine days. 

The machines that were helping her live were also causing adverse impacts on her family.

“There’s a lot of beeping. I mean, I was. My lungs were being opened and closed. And that’s very loud. It distracts the families from what makes it more comfortable for them, because those sounds, hearing them 24 hours a day. They are scary,” Pearson said. 

There was one thing that brought comfort to Pearson and her family during this time

Music has a long history of helping those fighting for their lives. According to the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, data shows music reduces pain and even has a positive effect on symptoms of stroke and dementia. 

Medical experts have also linked music to help wake up a coma patient, according to a study. 

Pearson said her family never left her side, including her younger sister, Anna Hayes. From her coma to learning who she was again and learning how to do basic tasks again — Hayes was there.

“Learn how to write again, walk — everything. How to eat, how to swallow, it was very, very hard,” Pearson said. 

And it was her sister’s idea to start a fundraiser to put Amazon Alexa devices in every room in the hospital to play music. 

Pearson hopes other patients and their families get the same benefits she and her family did when visiting her.

“I realized that I got a second chance at life and I want to help as many people as I can,” Pearson said.