Phoenix man released from hospital after five-month COVID-19 treatment
Arizona man released from hospital after five-month COVID-19 treatment
The Phoenix man was being treated in a southern Arizona hospital for five months. This weekend, he finally got to home after beating COVID-19.
TUCSON, Ariz. - An Arizona man can finally go home after spending five months on a life-saving ECMO machine after his coronavirus diagnosis.
Phoenix resident Darryl Williams left Banner Hospital in Tucson, where he had also undergone a double lung transplant. Back in July, doctors say this moment didn't seem possible.
"Every day that month, we didn't know which way it was going to go," said one doctor.
Williams spent weeks on an ECMO machine, which does the work for the heart and lungs. The odds were stacked against him - he had poor lungs and a coronavirus diagnosis. Doctors said most people would die with those odds.
"The most probable outcome is that you die if you go on ECMO," a doctor said. "He had both of those things and he was able to recover enough to get a transplant."
After experiencing a medical miracle, Williams said he had nothing but gratitude for the health care professionals who took care of him.
"They did an excellent job taking care of me and getting me to this point and know what we have to do from here," Williams said.
Darryl will now have to go through extensive rehab to work on regaining his strength and walking on his own, but he says that's a small feat compared to where he was five months ago.