Pistons scout shows signs of improvement in coronavirus fight

Detroit Pistons scout Maury Hanks was removed from a ventilator Tuesday after he successfully passed breathing treatments at the University of Tennessee Medical Center where he was being treated for complications from coronavirus, CBS Sports’ Brad Botkin reported.

Hanks, 57, was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit March 23 where he had been unconscious and under heavy sedation, his wife Susan told CBS Sports.

By Monday his oxygen levels improved to where doctors were able to decrease Hanks’ reliance on a ventilator.

Susan was talking to her husband through earbuds as he was coming out of sedation and trying to breathe on his own.  

“You can imagine waking up, he’s so groggy, he doesn’t know where he is, and he has a tube down his throat,” his wife told CBS Sports. “…Basically, when he gets agitated and struggles laying in bed, it makes it harder for him to breathe.”

Hanks, who is still using an oxygen mask, will be transferred to a COVID-19 step-down unit if his recovery improves.