Carlos

During the summer of 2020, Carlos, his wife, and their three daughters took a ten-day trip to Mexico. Near the end of their trip, Carlos started developing symptoms resembling COVID-19. He experienced difficulty breathing and sleeping. With each passing day, Carlos felt worse than the day before. He decided to visit the nearest hospital, where he tested positive for COVID-19.

Throughout his stay, Carlos and his family became concerned with the lack of progress he was making. It wasn’t long before he and his wife decided he should seek care at another nearby hospital. After his inpatient stay at the second hospital, he still saw no signs of improvement, in fact, his symptoms worsened. At one point, Carlos wasn’t sure if he would survive another day. He explained, “I thought I was going to pass away.”

While Carlos fought for his life, his wife worked on getting him back to the United States once he could travel. Days later, he finally started to see some improvements. His wife made arrangements to have him flown on a medical airlift back to the US. He arrived at Clovis Community Medical Center ready to begin his road to recovery.

After several weeks, Carlos’s physicians recommended he continue his care at San Joaquin Valley Rehabilitation Hospital. There he could receive inpatient rehabilitation and continue working on getting back to better. His initial reaction was to go home, but he decided to listen to the recommendation and arrived at SJVRH with high expectations.

At this point, Carlos was down 45 pounds and felt very weak. His mobility was severely affected, but he was willing to give physical therapy a try. “Miracles started to happen,” he said. “Every day I improved, and after five days, I could stand on my own.”

“SJVRH brought me back to life.”

Carlos gave everything he had while at SJVRH and it showed. He achieved his goal to return home and didn’t stop there. He is now working on his recovery in the SJVRH outpatient therapy program. As he continues to improve, Carlos appreciates each day. He stated, “God Bless America, God bless Clovis Community, and God bless San Joaquin Valley Rehabilitation Hospital.”