MIAMI (WSVN) - A technician who has worked at Jackson Memorial Hospital for over a decade has just been released from the hospital after a vigorous nine-month fight with COVID-19.
Rosa Felipe, 41, contracted the virus back in March and was finally released from the hospital, Tuesday afternoon.
She has worked as a technician at JMH for 15 years.
“I’m overcome with emotion because I didn’t think I was going to make it,” Felipe said as she cried. “This is real. Corona is real. The effects are real.”
Her family believes that she caught the virus at JMH, where she received treatment.
“Rosa came to us pretty sick. We did intubate her, and she did ask us prior to getting intubated to please help her and not to let her die,” said Alix Zacharski, a spokesperson for the hospital.
Felipe had underlying health issues and had to spend two months in the intensive care unit, and spent the last six months in rehab, re-learning how to walk and dress herself.
7News cameras were there as she used a walker to make her way out of the hospital to head home with her family, who hugged her for the first time in months.
“I had a huge wound down to the bone in my back,” Felipe said. “I was always afraid of infection, the pain that I felt when they moved my legs and if you would’ve told me back then that I would come out walking with difficulty, but I’m standing.”
Felipe is standing tall, but she knows her fight is far from over as she awaits surgeries so doctors could amputate her fingertips, which have turned black due to a lack of oxygen.
Until then, she’s grateful to be alive and happy to be heading home in time for the holidays.
She also had a message for the general public.
“I’m not gonna give up, and I’m gonna get better. But guys, take it, like, it’s serious,” Felipe said. “Put on your masks. If you don’t want to put it on for you, put it on for other people who are more vulnerable. Put on your masks, wash your hands, maintain social distance, do your part. This has been hard.”
In addition to having her fingertips amputated, Felipe will also be starting occupational and physical therapy.
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