For ten long days, Joe Trejo was connected to a respirator in the intensive care unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, unable to communicate with his wife, Patty, and their three children.
But on Monday, while a mariachi band played the couple’s favorite song in the parking lot and broadcast it to them in the ICU via a smartphone, she said, Joe responded – albeit subtly.
“I know he heard me and I know he heard the music,” she said, referring to “La Mano de Dios” (“The Hand of God”), translated by Aurelio Reyes el Gallo de Chiapas, a trio of mariachis she hired.
Patty Trejo got a mariachi band to play “La Mano de Dios” (“The Hand of God”), her husband Joe’s favorite song.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
“When I was talking to him, he really did talk a little and opened his eyes and his body moved,” she said. “I started to pray even harder and he opened his eyes again. … I was able to put him in my arms and [hold] his hand and I have to kiss him. “
Patty, 54, an assistant to a teacher in the unified school district of Placentia-Yorba Linda, said she knows that Joe, a 53-year-old locksmith from the Anaheim Union High school district, is not out of danger.
He has been in the hospital for a month with COVID-19 and has been fighting pneumonia complications since he was put on a respirator – the same day that her father, 95-year-old Epie Rios, died after contracting the virus.
Patty and two of the couple’s three children – Chris, Matthew and Joseph, aged 18 to 31 – also had COVID-19 and recovered. Everyone was in the hospital on Monday and everyone is hoping that Joe will recover.
Nurse Celina Mande holds a phone with the mariachi band.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
She said he does not like to be the center of attention and will not be satisfied that she discloses her illness to the public. But she said she had to do this to thank her friends and co-workers and to recruit new “prayer warriors” to pull him over.
“We hope that the pneumonia will improve and, once it improves, he can start to recover,” said Patty. “He gives me the strength to go on and fight, and I just want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who has helped us to overcome this.”
Patty said she knows that the chances increase with each passing day that her husband remains on the respirator.
“I know they say that if he doesn’t stop after 10 days, the chances are slim,” she said. “But I say, OK, it takes time to heal and I’ve seen miracles. He will be our miracle. “