A Texas mom who spent five months battling COVID-19 in the hospital — part of it while pregnant — has finally returned home.
Crystal Gutierrez, 36, was discharged to applause and cheers Tuesday after 152 days in HCA Houston Healthcare in Clear Lake, news station KHOU reported.
“We’ve been going through this for five months. A lot of people don’t get a second chance. I’ve been blessed with a second chance,” the mom of four told news station KTRK.
Gutierrez was 36 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to the hospital with coronavirus in late June. She underwent an emergency Caesarian section to give birth to a son, who also tested positive for the virus.
Though the baby soon recovered, Gutierrez became more ill, with doctors giving her a 23 percent chance of surviving the virus, KTRK reported.
“As a father, as a husband, you don’t know what to do when you hear something like that. It’s something that broke me,” her husband of seven years, Rafael Gutierrez, told the outlet.
She remained for two months in the intensive care unit, where she was hooked up to a life-support device called an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, or ECMO, and underwent a tracheotomy.
“We take three good steps forward and 10 steps back,” Rafael said of her road to recovery, news station KVUE reported.
He said the family finally received good news last week when they learned she could come home in time for Thanksgiving.
“I cried. I cried. As much I want to think that it’s going to all be over soon. We have a journey ahead of us,” Rafael said.
