Joshua Garza had an opportunity to get inoculated against COVID-19 in January, but he ignored it, assuming he didn’t need it.
Now, the 43-year-old Sugar Land guy wishes to encourage others to get the shot after becoming so ill following his COVID-19 investigation that he required a rare dual lung transplant to last.
“COVID ended up invading my lungs,” Garza stated.
After testing positive for COVID-19 around the end of January, Garza’s health declined quickly. On February 2, when he ended up slumping while attempting to walk, his wife requested an ambulance to take him to the hospital.
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He was eventually assigned to Houston Methodist, where he was put on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) device to pump and oxygenate his blood for him.
“It was fast, it was within three weeks, the lungs were already killed,” stated Garza, who operates in the oil and gas enterprise. “They’re saying you your lungs are slipping, so you have no knowledge if you’re go to bed tonight and you will wake up tomorrow,” he told.
Garza was placed on the lung transplant record, and on April 13, successfully underwent an operation. He used various weeks of healing and restoring to recover his power after two months of life assistance before being discharged from the infirmary on May 27.
Lung operations are a special attack for COVID-19 victims “with no extra choices,” Dr. Howard Huang, the medical director at Houston Methodist and one of the physicians who operated Garza, told ABC News.
“Mr. Garza is an ultimate symbol of notable who had full lung collapse, and there was absolutely no other way out in the immediate prospect other than operation,” he said.
It was “nearly miraculous” that Garza was ready to be placed on the ECMO machine through the winter wave of COVID-19 hospitalizations and equaled with a savior, Huang stated.
“Everything just lined up in his support.”
Houston Methodist has done eight double lung operations on COVID-19 cases and has more patients on life support expecting transplants, Huang stated.
“These people are still struggling for their lives,” he replied.
Houston Methodist remains to see patients with the critical ailment from COVID-19, many of whom have not been treated, Huang said. It’s hard to say for sure, but Huang concludes that had Garza received the vaccine when he was able to, “it’s possible that we would have never come to this circumstances.”
“The information that’s now coming out implies that the vaccines are very useful at blocking critical illness,” he said. “Even if was taken to a hospital, perhaps it wouldn’t have advanced all the way to complete lung collapse that couldn’t be restored without a lung operation.”
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