Matthew Broderick’s sister believed she was going to die.
The Reverend Janet Broderick was diagnosed with COVID-19 and teetered for eighteen hours near death. After going to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills she was placed in ICU, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia, needed an oxygen tube to breathe and had fever of 102.
“I was very, very sick,” Janet told New York Magazine.
The 64-year-old minister began praying and planning her funeral, FaceTimed her children and texted her sister Martha that she loved her. Janet says that younger brother Matthew who was in rehearsals for the Broadway revival of “Plaza Suite” texted as often as he could between breaks.
The “Election” actor, 58, told the magazine that it was frightening.
“I was nervous and scared, but the reports at the time were saying people would be okay,” he remembered. “It was shocking.”
Janet began feeling ill after returning home from an annual conference in Kentucky. Later she found out another rector who also attended had tested positive for the virus. It was the first time in 30 years as an Episcopalian priest that she missed all four Ash Wednesday services.
Doctors prescribed antibiotics and Kaletra, a medicine usually used to treat HIV, and began to feel better the next day. Eventually, she was moved to an isolation room and spent a total of six days in the hospital.
The rector at All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, who is currently quarantined at her home, strongly believes that the power of prayer is the reason she’s still alive.
“I must have had 200 people praying for me that night … That’s the thing about being in a community like the church, just being part of a whole and knowing that you are connected,” she said.
Janet also noted that she received preferential treatment because of her brother.
“As soon as I got ahold of the guy at the hospital who knew who Matthew was, I was given the name of the head of the emergency room,” she said. “I think I’m absolute living proof that this system is completely corrupt.”
While she is convalescing Janet has been writing a daily devotional and would like to return to preaching via video.
Janet presided over her brother’s marriage to Sarah Jessica Parker when the two wed in 1997.