‘Catalyst Sessions’ recap: Bob Devin Jones

It was the anti-viral drug remdesivir, Bob Devin Jones said Tuesday on The Catalyst Sessions, that helped him through the hell of Covid-19 during the nearly 10 days he spent in isolation at Palms of Pasadena Hospital.

“Of the handful of things that I recall, one of the doctors says ‘I can get you that drug from New York; I think I can.’ And he did. And it kept me out of ICU a second time. Turned it around, and I was not the statistic on the other side of the ledger.”

Jones’ recollections, piecemeal though they may be, are vivid and visceral. His doctor saw his test results and immediately had him admitted. “Once you go through that door, you could very well be called Alice,” he said. “Like through the looking glass.”

Jones likened the days that followed to the TV series The Twilight Zone. “It was the most bizarre things that’s ever happened to me,” he explained. “I didn’t realize how sick I was, but I was very sick.”

He described the ensuing delirium as a kind of coping mechanism, as his body processed the virus. “There was this tribunal – it was adjudicated that I was not well-liked in this reality in which I was living. And subsequent to that, I had this sensation of all the sounds leaving the world …”

This was one of the most in-depth, honest and utterly fascinating installments of the Catalyst interview series – and we, along with everyone else in St. Petersburg’s familial arts community, are thankful that the story had a happy ending, and that Bob Devin Jones is back, and healthy, and will soon be re-applying his numerous talents and deep, crazy wisdom to making things twist and shout again.

John Capouya

Today on The Catalyst Sessions: Author John Capouya.

Streaming weekdays at 7 p.m. on the Catalyst Facebook page. All episodes are archived on our YouTube channel.