CRR saloon owner recovering after battle with COVID-19, brain aneurysm
(Update: Adding video, comments from Randy and Barbara Knight)
Owner will sell bar, but wants to remain involved.
CROOKED RIVER RANCH, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Crooked River Ranch's Big Dog Saloon has its "Big Dog" back.
"It's a miracle, as far as I'm concerned,” owner Randy Knight told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday. “I shouldn't be here. I'm definitely on borrowed time now."
In late November, a few days after returning from a Moose convention in Waldport, Knight collapsed at his home.
"They ambulanced me to (St. Charles) Redmond, and they airlifted me to Bend,” he said. “I had a (brain) aneurysm, and I had COVID-19. They checked me for that.
“They kind of feel like the COVID-19 had something to do with promoting the aneurysm."
Knight was the ICU for four weeks. He thinks he became infected at the convention.
The timing couldn't have been worse, as the bar was shutting down due to Oregon's two-week freeze.
At one point, realizing that Knight’s condition was looking bad, doctors asked Knight's wife, Barbara, if she had a Do Not Resuscitate order.
"On hindsight, we're glad we didn't,” Barbara said, after discovering she didn’t have one. “Because they would have pulled the plug the second night he was there. The doctor said he wouldn't make it through the night."
"So I think the 'Prayer Warriors' are un-thank-able,” Barbara said. “There's no way we can thank them all for what they did."
But given Knight's condition, he can't run the bar like he did before.
"We're going to sell the Big Dog Saloon,” Knight said. “There's no question about it. We want to try to keep it -- we hope the people we sell it to will maintain the 'Big Dog' reputation, because really, it's the brand."
The Big Dog himself might be out of the fight, but not entirely out of the saloon.
Tune in for Jack Hirsh's story, starting on NewsChannel 21 Fox @ 4.
