For Mayra Ramirez the pandemic tried to be careful not to contract COVID-19, she followed all precautionary measures to avoid being infected. But none of it worked and after a while it started toexperience some symptoms of this disease, as loss of smell and taste, as well as increased fever.
After your case was followed up by phone, the Hispanic 28-year-old arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago on April 26, where the most terrible experience of his life began.. According to what he shared with CNNIt was then that she was asked who would be the person who would make the decisions about her life if she could not, when she realized the seriousness of the situation.
“Everything that memory was that they put me to sleep when they tubed me and soon six whole weeks of nightmares. Some these consisted of suffocating me a lot and I attribute that to not being able to breathe“, He said CNN.
But that was not the worst, but despite not having a previous illness, all of his organs were starting to fail. According to what the agency reported AFP in June, the disease caused large holes in his left lung, leading to a bacterial infection. These were lost, and I needed new lungs.
“A lung transplant was your only chance for survival“Ankit Bharat, head of chest surgery at Northwestern Hospital, told the agency.
The doctors had to wait until Mayra tested negative for coronavirus before they could do the transplant. The day came and on June 5 the patient underwent a difficult surgery, according to Bharat. The procedure lasted about 10 hours, as his old lungs clung to the inside, which complicated the removal.
But intervention was successful and the doctor hopes that this will be an impulse so that more people whose lungs are defective can undergo this operation.
The fact that Ramírez is young and healthy, is one of the reasons that made her a good candidate and helped her in her survival. However, this was not the end, as the psychological implications of a transplant are not simple.
“I looked at myself and couldn’t recognize my own body. I couldn’t speak, I could barely move a finger, I couldn’t move. I felt a lot of pain, I was very confused ”, said the woman who, although awake, had to remain intubated for a few more days.
The battle for recovery still continues, as more than two months after the surgery, she is still struggling.
“I’m still in a lot of pain, I’m still learning to use my new lungs, I’m still out of breath, I am working to be able to walk longer and I still have sequels of the nightmares I had on the ventilator ”, he explained to CNN.
Mayra was the first American to receive the transplant after a positive coronavirus test. Exactly a month after she survived this procedure, 62-year-old Brian Kuhns, and originally from Lake Zurich, became the second.
Much Kuhns like Ramírez are among the more than 4 million Americans who have been infected with the virus. “This one it is not a scam. This virus is real, it happened to me”Alerted Ramírez.
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