ELMHURST, IL — The face of the coronavirus pandemic has often been the elderly. But anyone can get sick from the virus. On Tuesday, Jonathan Davila, a 30-year-old Addison resident, was released from Elmhurst Hospital after a 44-day stay.
It was a rough road for Davila. He was intubated for more than 20 days for respiratory failure because of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, according to a hospital news release. And he was on dialysis at one point.
A news conference was held outside the hospital’s main entrance Tuesday afternoon with Davila and his physician, Dr. Phillip Cozzi. Hospital staff applauded as Davila passed by them in a stretcher. He had been inside the building since March 23.
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His wife, Ashley King, and sons, Danny, Mason and Elijah, were on hand outside the hospital. King had only seen her husband once during the 44 days because of the restrictions on contact with coronavirus patients.
“I’m just very happy he’s alive,” Ashley King said at the new conference. “It was very hard. There was a time that I didn’t think he was going to come home. I was starting to think how I was going to tell the kids that they weren’t going to have their dad.”
Davila, who works in machine maintenance, told reporters his symptoms began eight days before he was admitted into the hospital. He said he got a “little cough,” but he said things became more grave when he started urinating blood.
Upon leaving the hospital Tuesday, he was taken by ambulance to Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton. The hospital said Davila no longer needs help with oxygen. His youngest child, Elijah, is 6 months old.
As of Monday, Elmhurst Hospital had 58 patients for the coronavirus. Thirty-seven people have died as a result of the virus at the hospital.
Since March 24, 181 patients have been discharged from Elmhurst Hospital after treatment for confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
Read more:
Illinois Coronavirus Update May 5: 65,962 Cases, 2,838 Deaths
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