William and Eboni's personal story of bravery
William and Eboni were talking one day and Eboni mentioned that she was getting a cold. Later that night she got a fever. It turned into pneumonia, then to double pneumonia. She went to the hospital, was admitted and found out that she had COVID.
One week later, William was at home and suddenly couldn’t breathe well. He called the ambulance and they took him to the hospital. The medical team gave him antibiotics, but the next day it got worse. William slipped into a coma… for 16 days.
Eboni’s room at the hospital was right above William, but she couldn’t go see him because of COVID restrictions. She was discharged after three weeks when William was still in a coma. He also later recovered.
The staff members of Emanate Health go above and beyond to care for their patients, especially during the pandemic. “I remember having conversations with the nurses and asking them how they were doing,” said Eboni. “Just seeing the sacrifices they were making. There were quite a few caretakers who weren’t even going home to their families in order to keep their loved ones safe.”
“You want to give up, then after talking with the nurses, it gave me hope,” said William. “When they would come in and encourage me and we would talk about different things, it makes you feel loved.”
After four weeks, William was well enough to go home. It was a time of celebration, so the hospital staff had a discharge parade for him.
“The door opened and you see two rows of people cheering me on,” said William. “Oh man, that was awesome; I never got this type of attention before in my life. It’s like walking out of a football stadium tunnel where everybody’s cheering. Yeah, that was a highlight.”
“Some of the staff members were tearing up,” said Eboni. “They were just so genuinely happy. It was a good feeling. I didn’t think I was going to see him again, and then to see him, I was just relieved. It was like a big pressure was lifted.”
William and Eboni are deeply grateful for the care they received from the hospital staff. “With COVID, no one can come visit you, but by talking with the staff there, it helped with the journey of getting into recovery, of (going home),” said William.
Eboni said, “I personally would like to thank all the health care workers for taking care of me. Thank you for saving (William’s) life. You could just tell they love their job, they love what they do, and to be around that and have a positive outcome from this experience means a lot.”
