A COVID-19 patient who spent 8 months on life support at a San Diego County hospital miraculously overcoming obstacle after obstacle reached his goal on Tuesday: he finally made it home.
“It looks like a dream,” the patient’s mother, Cecilia Amador, told reporters in front of Memorial Scripps Hospital on Genesee Avenue in La Jolla.
The hospital has housed her son, Eduardo Moreno, since his hospitalization on July 19, 2020 – eight very, very long months ago.
Eduardo Moreno has been at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, San Diego County, since July 19, 2020 – three of those months have been spent in a coma, reports Claudette Stefanian of NBC 7.
Fighting tears, Amador said he couldn’t believe that, after all – including three months in a coma and three surgeries – Moreno was coming home.
“He did that,” she said. “He’s here; he’s walking. He remembers everything. He’s 100%.”
He did that.
Cecilia Amador, mother of the COVID-19 survivor
Moreno, in a wheelchair and wearing a face mask, sat quietly beside his mother after being discharged on Tuesday. It was an exciting day – a lot to absorb after all that he had been through.
“We’re going home, thank God,” said Amador.
NBC 7 San Diego Eduardo Moreno and his mother, ready to return home, on March 23, 2021.
Moreno’s farewell to Scripps Memorial Hospital was filled with balloons, applause and many nurses holding signs to say goodbye to the man they had learned to know so well in the past 8 months.
“Congratulations Eduardo. You are a fighter ”, said a poster.
“Graduated in ECMO. You did it! “Read another.
Moreno was ushered through the lobby through an arcade made of white and light blue balloons. A chain of colored paper wire hung at the end of the path. Moreno happily pushed his way through it.
It was the finish line for a medical marathon.
The nurses and hospital staff applauded him.
He wore a mask, but in his eyes, you could see traces of a smile.
His mother was there to take him home.
Eduardo’s long struggle against COVID-19
Moreno contracted COVID-19 in late June 2020 or early July 2020. He was hospitalized for the first time on July 13, 2020. Six days later, he was transferred to the Memorial Scripps Hospital Intensive Care Unit.
Things did not look good for him.
“He was very critical,” recalled his mother. “They told us that he would not survive.”
They told us that he would not survive.
Eduardo Moreno’s mother, recalling the beginning of her son’s hospitalization in mid-July 2020
Dr. Scott McCaul, MD, is the medical director of Scripps ICU and ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation). He has been a pulmonary ICU doctor at Scripps since 1987.
McCaul was one of Moreno’s top doctors. He said the young man’s case – and his determination to survive – was nothing short of a miracle.
“It’s a phenomenal recovery – and a lot of work on his part,” said McCaul.
McCaul said that Moreno – at worst – depended entirely on machines to survive. Upon arriving at the ICU, Moreno had an advanced degree of respiratory failure due to COVID-related pneumonia.
“[He had] destructive changes in your lungs – and tubes needed to allow your lungs to expand, ”explained the doctor.
Moreno was put on life support and machines took over his lung function.
McCaul said his patient essentially needed to “learn to breathe underwater” and use a machine to do what his lungs did, but “without being able to feel the breath”.
Moreno survived several surgeries. Gradually, McCaul said that Moreno left paralysis, sedation – coma – to stand, walk and recover his physical capacity.
For all these reasons, mental and physical exhaustion was a daily struggle. McCaul said there were days filled with anxiety and pain – but also an unbelievable desire to fight on his patient.
Moreno’s nurses and doctors supported him every step of the way.
Due to the restrictions of COVID-19, Moreno’s family had to limit themselves to “visiting it” virtually through video calls. There were few hugs.
“Physical contact was so scarce,” said McCaul.
Amador said that staying away from her son while he was so ill was the most difficult thing for her to experience as a mother.
She cried a lot.
She prayed even more.
“He’s been through a lot. His lungs were bleeding. He had a blood clot on his head, ”explained Amador.
When she was unable to be there to comfort her son, Amador said that nurses and doctors supported him as a family.
Amador said the nurses “spoiled” him – even bringing Moreno In-n-Out hamburgers once or twice and, on vacation, placing a small Christmas tree and gifts in his room.
Moreno got stronger.
Along the way, there were, of course, setbacks.
McCaul said that in December 2020 – very close to Christmas – it was one of those moments. Moreno has set some goals for himself – his Christmas wish list.
“Eduardo’s goals for Christmas included learning to speak on the fan, walking 30 meters, making a video for his daughter, eating his mother’s albondigas,” recalls McCaul.
Eduardo’s goals for Christmas included learning to speak on the fan, walking 30 meters, making a video for his daughter, eating his mother’s albondigas.
Dr. Scott McCaul, MD, Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla
“Probably my most exciting moment was being in his room and looking at all the personal items – the things that really made Eduardo stay in that room,” added the doctor. “The Christmas tree that the nurses brought there and knowing that those goals had been closed.”
But Moreno continued to struggle, undergoing yet another surgery.
After the last operation, Moreno’s mother said that McCaul finally said to her, “Don’t worry, he’ll be coming home.”
In January 2021, McCaul said that Moreno’s lungs were healed enough that he could be disconnected from the machines.
McCaul said that, despite everything, Moreno showed everyone at the hospital that even if something is difficult or seems impossible, it is possible to get past it.
“He is a role model for all of us,” he added.
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit San Diego County a year ago, San Diego County public health officials have tracked 267,917 positive cases of COVID-19 in our region. A total of 3,494 COVID-related deaths have been reported in San Diego County. For the latest daily updates on the coronavirus crisis in our region, click here.