A 24-year-old Texas woman who spent nearly three months in a hospital battling Covid-19 says she wishes she had listened to the advice of officials and experts and wore a mask.
Paola Castillo was discharged from the Medical City North Hills Hospital in North Richland Hills on Wednesday after 79 days, according to a hospital press release.
Castillo went to the emergency room on April 27 with difficulty breathing, cough, and fever. The hospital said she had been experiencing symptoms for six days before going to the emergency room and that she was placed on a ventilator for her first 24 hours there.
He spent more than a month in the intensive care unit and on the ventilator, according to the hospital. Her husband and mother were told their condition was “touch and go” during that time, the hospital said.
After being disconnected from the ventilator, Castillo had to undergo rehabilitation because his walking, speaking and swallowing skills had been stunted, according to the statement. He was able to leave for the first time 67 days after his admission and took his first steps on July 3.
“What the care team has done even for this patient is a sign of a life well lived and a purpose fulfilled,” Andrea Morian, director of rehabilitation services for Medical City North Hills, said in the statement. “This is a single patient. The impact our teams are having on so many more right now is overwhelming.”
Castillo told CNN affiliate KTVT that he never thought he would contract the virus.
“Maybe if I had listened and worn a mask, just one simple thing, I would have avoided all of this,” he told KTVT. “I work in a bank, I’m always surrounded by people, but I thought, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine.’ I never thought I’d catch him.”
The hospital said Castillo is now negative for Covid-19 and will continue his recovery at home.
Texas has the fourth-highest number of coronavirus cases in the United States, with at least 292,400 cases as of Thursday afternoon, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.
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