BIG issue updating my I-phone 5s to IOS 12.4--Aug 8, 2019

FYI for anyone about to update an older iphone to IOS 12.4. I-pad updated OK. I-phone 5s, which had no previous problem, got down to the last little bit of the progress bar & hung up showing the white screen & black Apple Logo. i could not get off the white screen/ Apple Logo screen. I was updating through I-Tunes with cable. The progress bar looked to be all black, indicating procedure completed for black part, but with a magnifying glass a nub of the gray still could be seen. At that point I let it continue to sit for 3 hours & the procedure never did finish. I have literally spent hours on this attempted update.

Pressing/ holding the power button did nothing. Holding the power button & home button down together then releasing the home button but holding the power button brought it back to the white screen and the progress bar. The progress bar would get to the same point & hang up at the very end as before.

I-tunes could not do a Restore procedure. At this point I am trying the Recovery procedure, again through I-Tunes with cable, which I understand will wipe out everything and should restore the phone to factory settings, supposedly with the 12.4 update installed.

I have now reached the last bit of the progress bar under Recovery and I am waiting to see what will happen but I am afraid 12.4 has bricked the phone totally. At this point I have been waiting about 30 minutes. Had I known that this would happen, I would have avoided 12.4 entirely.

Recovery is usually the most severe option but does anyone have any other suggestions.