JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After spending six months in the hospital with COVID-19, a 27-year-old man walked out of UF Health Jacksonville on Tuesday with his father by his side.
Both say it’s a miracle that Fabian Granado will be heading home.
It was quite the scene as he left the hospital. The hallway was lined with staff wishing him well. He and his father, Rene Granado, say it was with their help and God’s love that he is alive.
Fabian Granado’s release from UF Health Jacksonville comes 194 days after he was admitted in August. He’s from Texas but was in Jacksonville going to a diving school. He could not stop coughing and eventually ended up in the intensive care unit.
“I was in bad condition. Apparently, my heart stopped a couple of times. It was a long, rough road,” Fabian Granado said. “And, of course, I didn’t have the vaccine, and I’m sure if I had it, it would’ve been a lot better.”
He was in a coma for some time, and his father came to be by his side
“I came to Florida from Texas thinking I was coming to bury my son,” Rene Granado said. “And when I got here and saw the condition he was in, I thought it was a real possibility he was not going to be coming back home alive. That is the worst experience a parent can go through.”
Fabian Granado’s lungs stopped working and he underwent special treatment on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine, which puts oxygen into your blood when your lungs can’t.
“There was a time when his lungs were doing absolutely nothing,” said Dr. Joseph Shiber with UF Health. “His lungs were so damaged, so sick and so injured they were not able to do a gas exchange, so we were having to do his gas exchange for him.”
“The scariest thing is thinking I’m not going to be able to go back home, not be able to go back home and see my dogs, see my family, missing a bunch of people,” Fabian Granado said.
Rene Granado said: “I remember sitting by his bed, rocking his bed the same way I did when he was a baby, blood coming out of his mouth, coming out through the tubes, oxygen level was low, not conscious. Horrible. All I could do was pray and ask for others to pray along with me.”
After prayer and weeks of treatment from the staff, things began to turn around.
On Tuesday, hospitals workers cheered as Fabian Granado was wheeled to the door and was able to do something they had not thought would happen: walk to the car to eventually head home.
“Miracles happen,” Rene Granado said. “Give God praise where it is due, and go get your vaccination.”
Fabian Granado will undergo some therapy before returning to Texas.