COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A 65-year-old community activist with the Cobb Immigrant Alliance and Southern Christian Leadership Conference was probably one of the first cases of the COVID-19 virus in the state of Georgia.
Richard Pellegrino spent 19 days in the hospital; for a week of that, he was on a ventilator, unsure if he would survive.
But the second week of April, Pellegrino was wheeled of the hospital while his family stood outside the emergency room ready to take him home.
"Hi, daddy!” one of his children yelled as Pellegrino’s wheelchair got closer.
“Hi, guys!” the 65-year-old responded excitedly.
If he could run, he would have leapt out of his wheelchair to hug his children's neck.
He hadn’t done that in well over two weeks.
“How are you doing?," one child asked in the home video shot on a cellphone that afternoon.
For 19 days, all Pellegrino wished for while lying in his hospital bed, with tubes down his throat and nose, was healing. He wanted to see his family, walk on his own two feet, and feel the sun on his face again.
“That was just great,” Pellegrino said, trying to find the right words as he reflected on the moment he was discharged. “How warm it was, in Spring. Like, you know, there was a rebirth!”
A rebirth that started early in March when Pellegrino felt a mild fever and a consistent, dry cough. He went to the emergency room when he started having trouble breathing. He said it took three trips to the emergency room before he was finally admitted and later tested.
“When you can't breathe, when you can't catch your breath, it's the worst feeling,” he explained. “Even when I had pneumonia. It was nothing like this. [Battling COVID-19 felt like] the worst thing in the world.
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Pellegrino said his condition deteriorated so quickly, doctors at Wellstar Cobb in Austell tried everything.
“They asked permission, 'can we try this experimental treatment? The anti-malarial drug?' And at that point, I would have said, probably, yes to anything. And, I agreed. [After a few doses] I didn't feel better. I don't think it hurt me. Let's put it that way,” Pellegrino said about the controversial COVID-19 therapy using an anti-malarial and Lupus drug called Plaquenil/Hydrochloroquine.
Two days after he started the treatment, Pellegrino said his medical team was forced to put him on a ventilator. His family couldn't visit.
Since Grandpa couldn't talk either, the kids got creative. They wrote him messages and painted bright, colorful drawings for him, encouraging him to keep fighting.
“The emotional support from friends and family and colleagues was the best. I would say that was equal or greater than any medicinal or physical intervention,” Pellegrino said, tearing up.
“When you feel your body is failing and you want to give up, your mind and spirit want to give up, it's that support. It's those prayers. It's those cheerleaders who are saying you can do this. They push you and keep you going, it's real," he said.
"That's what pulled me through. That's what made me want to fight and say I can't give up. If people aren't giving up on me, I can't give up on them," Pellegrino added.
It wasn’t easy. The 65-year-old, who was otherwise in good health, said it felt like pulling himself from a deep pit.
“My heart goes out to all of the people suffering from this [COVID-19] at different stages. That's the pit of darkness, literally, because you're not getting oxygen to your organs, into your brain. And of course, coming out of the off the ventilator,” he said. “I wanted to get back on it. I was gasping. I didn't know how to speak. I didn't know how to swallow. I know I was basically starting all over," said Pellegrino.
But who knew it would end this way: the sun, his family and his first steps outside the hospital in 19 days?
“It was just like heaven,” Pellegrino explained, smiling.
He said his medical team went above and beyond the call of duty to help save his life.
Even though he has written them letters of appreciation, he believes there’s even more he can do.
Pellegrino is still physically weak and recovering. He said as soon as he can, he wants to start a community fundraiser for all his medical heroes.
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