The number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise, but in what appears to be the worst time of the pandemic, a Koreatown family claims to have received a miracle on Thanksgiving Day.
The Santos family says that despite taking all possible precautions to not get coronavirus, such as social distancing and the use of a mask, the entire family contracted COVID-19 in June and the disease almost took away one of its dearest members, Geoffrey, a 28-year-old man with Down syndrome.
On June 26, Geoffrey was the first to contract the virus and unfortunately became seriously ill. The young man had to be admitted to the Cedars-Sinai Hospital, where his mother, Martha Santos, who was also beginning to show symptoms of the virus, begged doctors to allow her to accompany her son, whom she still considers her little boy.
The mother says that she begged the doctors to let her stay close to her son, as "he has Down syndrome, and he can't take care of himself."
"I cried, so that I could be allowed to stay," Santos assured.
Doctors allowed Santos to accompany his son in isolation for six days, but Geoffrey got worse and had to be taken to intensive care where his mother could not accompany him anymore.
“I cried so much, I went out through those corridors screaming, but they took me out and told me they had to put him on a ventilator,” Santos recalls.
Geoffrey who had never been away from his family was left alone.
Meanwhile, Santos, her husband and the rest of the family began to recover from the disease and about a month and a half later Santos claims to have had an extraordinary experience.
"Someone came into my room and told me 'I haven't forgotten you,' I understood that it was God," she said.
A day later the doctor's told her that her son was on the brink of death and that there was only a 5% chance that Geoffrey would survive. They believed that he wouldn't last more than 48 hours.
Saddened, the Santos family clung to prayer and asked God to grant their miracle, that Geoffrey would recover.
The 48 hours passed and Geoffrey was still alive, but the doctors continued to think that the young man would not hold out for much longer. However, three months later, Geoffrey kept fighting and was still here, and although his kidneys were very deteriorated, he began to improve.
After almost five months, the young man was transferred to Kendrick Hospital for rehabilitation.
On Thanksgiving, Geoffrey was finally released from the hospital. His family and members of his church, in which he has participated fervently for many years, gathered outside the hospital to celebrate his journey home.
"God bless the doctors and nurses who fought for my son, I know that God guided them so that they could save my son," says Santos. "They said, your son is a miracle of God! Nobody, nobody survives the coronavirus in Geoffrey's condition."
The Santos share their story because they know that there are many other families who are going through difficult situations due to COVID-19. "Hold on to your faith in God because only God could do this great miracle."
The rest of the family has already tested negative for the virus and no one else has had complications.
