Summer Barrios de Seneca, South Carolina, thanks her husband for being alive.
The Barrios family held their breath when Robert Barrios tested positive for COVID-19 this summer. He has faced long-term health complications since then.
In July, the 46-year-old father oversaw shipping and receiving as a warehouse manager. He called his wife when he started feeling bad at work, she says. He can’t remember anything about that day, Summer Barrios says, because of how bad he felt.
He was placed on a ventilator four times, experienced delirium in the intensive care unit and aspirated several times from a collapsed lung, which caused bacterial pneumonia. Doctors say he may have lung disease caused by COVID-19 damage and pneumonia, she says.
The windpipe in his neck left scars and he continues to receive supplemental oxygen now that he is home. Now, her lungs are operating at only about 50% of capacity, she says.
While he is still struggling with the health impacts of the coronavirus, Summer Barrios says the family is grateful to have him at home after “long 81 days” at the hospital.
Robert Barrios left the hospital in time for the duo’s 10th birthday, which also falls on the birthday of his 12-year-old daughter, Jessica. After Robert Barrio’s traumatic health experience – at one point, medical professionals were telling Summer Barrios to start thinking about her husband’s funeral – they decided it was the right time to renew their vows.
With only Jessica and a pastor present, Robert and Summer Barrios celebrated their love.
“When he finally left [of the hospital], the renewal of the vote was definitely not the first thing on my mind. I was protecting him and protecting our daughter with a compromised immune system, ”she says. “We were blessed because people came forward to help us make this happen.”
Now that Robert Barrios is at home, financial difficulties have started to sink. Robert Barrios was the only provider in his household with a single income. Through his work, he received 40 hours of COVID-19 payment and signed up for short-term disability, a payment equivalent to $ 300 a week.
“It basically ends in late December, which is very difficult for anyone to live with, let alone for someone who now has two people with medical complications at home,” she says.
Medical bills, in addition to regular bills, are flooding and weighing on the family while closely monitoring Robert Barrios’ health, she says.
His daughter Jessica says that life has been “much easier since he came home”. She says she is a daddy-daughter girl; the two have a strong bond.
Jessica reminds others to be responsible by wearing a mask and distancing themselves socially “because one day it could be you. You never know when your life can be perfect in one minute and crazy in the next, basically. “
Summer Barrios says the roller coaster experience in recent months has influenced how she and her husband feel about who should lead the country during the pandemic.
Before testing positive for COVID-19, Robert Barrios supported President Trump. But as soon as he saw how Trump was doing, even after the president’s own diagnosis of coronavirus, his opinion changed, says Summer Barrios.
“We just hope that whoever wins, either Trump or [Joe] Biden, let people start listening to medical professionals, ”she says.
She says that frontline medical professionals and survivors of COVID-19 have been “overlooked by the administration.”
Summer Barrios is now part of a non-partisan group called COVID Survivors for Change, a network of people who advocate for better health policies and share first-hand stories about the damage that COVID-19 has on families. Saving lives should be an issue that everyone should support, she says, no matter how politically inclined they are.
“I believe that this must be a bipartisan issue, where everyone comes together for the good of this country,” she says, “and to honor those who have been unnecessarily affected by this virus”.
Ashley Locke produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Serena McMahon adapted for the web.