Fort Myers man hospitalized for months with COVID-19 symptoms

For more than a year now, COVID-19 has been dominating our world. But for one Fort Myers man, it completely changed his life and health.

Valentin Guerrero got to know COVID-19 all too well. “My COVID-19 symptoms started just like everybody else’s. So, you know, fever, sore throat, things like that, and it got progressively worse.”

Valentin first noticed his symptoms over a year ago. When they became more serious, he went to the hospital.

“My lungs started getting worse, progressively worse,” Valentin said. “My oxygen saturation rate was getting lower and lower every day to the point that I had to get intubated, and that was right before Thanksgiving.”

Valentin fell into a coma and didn’t wake up for a month and a half. He spent almost eight months in the hospital.

Valentin’s wife and children were by his side through it all. “The doctors were telling me that he wasn’t gonna make it,” said wife Ericka.

Valentin said that the only movement he could control when he woke up was the fingers on his right hand. He had to have parts of his feet and hands amputated because many of his cells died.

Now, he’s unable to walk, and his kidneys are only functioning at 15%. “Anything below that, I have to be on dialysis.”

Doctors didn’t think he’d make it but Valentin is happy to be alive. “I mean, I told my wife like one of these days we have to go back to some of the hospitals I’ve been to. I’ve been to a lot of them and to just thank everyone. The doctors [and] nurses.”

He hopes his story and struggles with COVID-19 will convince everyone to do their part to slow the spread.

“If you don’t do it for yourself, always do it for your loved ones,” he said.

Valentin said he wants to thank everyone for their prayers while he was in the hospital. He says he plans to continue wearing a mask even though he’s been vaccinated.