FONTANA, Calif. – An Emergency Room Charge Nurse at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana who treated COVID-19 patients and then tested positive himself is now home recovering after being hospitalized for nearly a month. He spoke to via Facetime about his battle and what got him through it.

In front of a huge banner signed by his co-workers that says “WE HEART U MARCIAL,” Marcial Reyes snapped a quick thumbs up picture leaving the hospital after being hospitalized nearly a month, 11 of those days in the Intensive Care Unit on a ventilator. He says without question it is the sickest he has ever been.

“It was terrible. I can’t breathe I can’t lay on any position… my skin is so sensitive I feel like I have sunburn all over,” Reyes said.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

 

As a frontline worker he was one of the first to treat COVID-19 patients.

“I understood the need to make sure that we are not overusing PPE’s unnecessarily but who knows what is necessary and unnecessary,” Reyes said.

He called out from work and isolated at home when he developed a heavy cough and a constant fever. Reyes has a history of diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension but says he wasn’t taking any medicine and felt healthy before he got sick.  However, a few days later he decided he needed help. He tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to the hospital.

“I thought of my son and my wife who turned out to be positive too,” he said.  

His wife had a cough and fever for a few days. His 4-year-old son never got sick. After about a week in the hospital, his condition worsened.

“All I know is that they took me to ICU. They put me to sleep chemically. On the 10th day that I was on the ventilator I woke up. I believe in divine intervention,” he said.  

He lost 30 pounds battling the virus. He has still only regained about 20 percent of his strength and is now resting at home with his wife and son. He says surviving COVID 19 has brought him closer to his family.

“My perspective in life is different now,” he said.

He also realizes how much he is loved by his work family who were there supporting him every step of step of the way. He plans to return to them and the hospital as soon as he is fully recovered.

 

 

 

“COVID-19 is not going to dampen or stop me from doing what I love doing and that is to serve my community as a nurse,” Reyes said.

On his Facebook page, he posted a photo of his family, with the message "We survived COVID-19; Stay Home, Save Lives." COVID-19 took a month of his life but it left him with a new appreciation of life and what matters most.