Woman who was hospitalized with COVID-19 and survived wants everyone to get vaccinated

Most of the patients in the hospital right now with COVID-19 are not vaccinated as deaths and patients in the hospital continue to rise.

At Lee Health, 12 people died on Wednesday, the highest death count since the start of the pandemic. And as of Thursday morning, 598 COVID patients remain in the system’s hospitals. Six of them are children and 93 are in the intensive care unit.

One mom and business owner from Cape Coral said if she could go back in time she’d get her shot.

For Shannon Ruvelas, it started out like the common cold but five days later, she was in the hospital with a skyrocketing fever and had a hard time breathing.

COVID didn’t kill Ruvelas but she heard others die and that changed her forever.

“I wish I had gotten a vaccine even to this day,” she said. 

Ruvelas was admitted to Cape Coral Hospital.

“When I was in the emergency department, because they didn’t have a room for me, you can hear all the code blues, and it was always a different room,” Ruvelas said.

Code Blue means someone’s heart has stopped beating.

Ruvelas beat the delta variant of COVID.

Now, she’s back running her business, Master Detailers Innovation.

Her fiance Mike Vizcaino is thankful to everyone who worked to save her.

“At the time, I didn’t see no end to it, which made it even more scarier. You know, for myself, I didn’t know what was going on,” Vizcaino said. 

The two plan to get vaccinated and want everyone who is unvaccinated to get the vaccine.

“I didn’t know that COVID was as bad as it is. If I knew if COVID was as bad as it was I would have gotten the vaccine,” Ruvelas said.