‘Believe in your team.’ Arlington woman grateful after her recovery from coronavirus.
When she was released Wednesday after a nine-day hospital stay while recovering from the coronavirus, Arlington woman Lusia Garcia was applauded by Medical City Las Colinas employees.
But when Garcia first arrived at the hospital, the second she visited since contracting the disease, she was greeted by pain and fear.
“I will say that it is a horror story,” Garcia said. “It felt like a nightmare. I’m not trying to get emotional but I felt like I was not going to come back from this.”
Garcia, 28, said during a taped interview provided by Medical City Las Colinas that she first believed she was suffering from a fever and a cold.
But it would not go away.
She initially went to another hospital and workers there told her that she had pneumonia and sent her home with antibiotics and instructions to follow up with her doctor, Garcia said.
“I had a temperature of 102 (degrees),” Garcia said.
Garcia said she took the antibiotics but felt worse, so she visited her doctor again. Her doctor said she should be tested for COVID-19, but two days later, the test results came back negative.
And then she got sicker, Garcia said.
“Nothing was helping to make the fever go away,” she said.
Garcia went to Medical City Las Colinas, where she was admitted on March 30 and tested. By that time, she already had trouble breathing and a lingering fever for several days.
Garcia was placed on a ventilator for three days before improving and eventually being discharged, according to a news release from Medical City Las Colinas.
She will now self-quarantine at home for the next 14 days while following the advice of physicians. As Garcia rolled out of the hospital Wednesday to return to her family, nurses applauded and presented Garcia with flowers and personal notes.
Garcia’s family was not allowed to visit her while she was in the hospital, so she had to rely on hospital staff for everything.
Garcia said her advice to others is to stay positive and have faith in the skill and compassion of the medical staff.
“Believe in your team,” Garcia said.
Garcia said she feels a lot better now, can breathe, dress herself, walk without getting out of breath and have a full conversation with pausing for breath.
“Now I feel pretty good,” she said.
Undoubtedly, the fanfare during her release helped.
