LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After spending months in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Baptist Health Louisville, Paula Eaton finally tested negative for COVID-19 about one week ago. Her family gathered over the weekend to greet her as she left Baptist Health and was transported, on a gurney, to Kindred Hospital downtown. Although the in-person visit was short, daughter Julie Abbott cherished the few moments she got to lay eyes on her mother. 

"She is definitely a fighter. We're all king of mindblown at this point, as to how her body has been able to withstand it," said Abbott. 

It had been 52 days since Abbott's father got to see his wife in person; it had been longer than that for Abbott. 

Abbott runs the food pantry at St. Matthews Area Ministries and first told Spectrum News 1 of her mother's illness when she was newly admitted to the ICU. 

"We need the community to recognize that this is still very very real. This can happen to your loved one in a heartbeat," she said. 

Although Eaton is coronavirus-free, she is still on a ventilator. The fight isn't over, and lasting impacts of the virus are unknown for now. 

"The COVID has done so much damage to her lungs so we don't know where things stand because it also produced, reproduced into like four different pneumonias," Abbott explained. 

Seeing her mother was enough to strengthen the family to stand strong on Eaton's long road to recovery.

"It was a mixture of emotions because she's had amazing medical guardian angels, as I keep calling them, for 52 days at Baptist Health. I just didn't know what the next chapter of this journey is going to look like," Abbott added.