"It is the hardest thing I have ever experienced in my life, but thank God I am still alive." These are the words of Reina Charito Acevedo, the first coronavirus patient admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) who left the Molina Orosa Hospital this Tuesday after being hospitalized for more than a month.
Reina Charito, who is a chambermaid and is 38 years old, started "with a cough and fever", but thought "it was a flu". However, when she began to have trouble breathing, on March 15 she went to the Hospital's Emergency Room, where she was admitted.
"They thought I didn't have anything, because I hadn't traveled, but I was suffocating", says this resident of Arrecife, who says that she was "isolated" and that they were doing "tests and tests" until it was confirmed that she had coronavirus. "And two days later I don't remember anything," she says.
And it is that, on March 17, Reina Charito was admitted to the ICU, where she remained for 28 days. There she was sedated until twenty days later and had to have a tracheotomy so she could breathe. "I have never been so sick in my life, I really thought it was a flu, but the most serious one there was me", she says.
"The hardest thing is to live it alone"
The last eight days that she remained in the ICU, Reina Charito says that she was already awake and that she was able to talk to her two children, who are 22 and 23 years old. "I made a video call and started crying, because the hardest thing is to live it alone, although it is true that the nurses give you joy, dance for you and make you smile," she says.
Finally, on April 13, this woman left the ICU and was transferred to the Hospital ward, which she left this Monday. "The truth is that I give thanks, because they have saved my life," Reina Charito thanks, who says that when they told her that she could go home she didn't believe it.
"I was very happy," says this woman, who explains that before being discharged from the hospital she had three coronavirus control tests and that all three were negative. "But I am still being followed up with my family doctor, because since I had surgery on my trachea...", she indicates.
Upon arriving home, Reina Charito was greeted by her family, who made her a mural with photos and a welcome message. "We have missed you very much. You are the soul of the house and essential for our lives. Thank you for being strong", it read, along with other expressions of affection.
