Mother released from hospital after COVID battle just in time for Thanksgiving

A woman was in the hospital for three months fighting COVID-19. Now, her battle is over, and she’s able to head home.

Now, that mother and NCH nurse says she is ready to marry the man who never doubted she’d be home to see her two sons.

Seeing staff clap for her was the moment Angela Pena knew she had finally beat COVID-19. “I’ve been waiting for this a long time, and I couldn’t be more grateful with God for the opportunity he gave me,” Pena said.

That was an opportunity even doctors at NCH didn’t believe she’d have. Pena spent months in a hospital bed. Doctors asked her family and her partner, David Lora, not once but on three different occasions if they considered pulling the plug. Health care workers didn’t believe she’d make it.

“What goes through my mind? It’s just something crazy. The moment I actually saw her in a real bed that she was in, and it was hard,” Lora said.

But Lora never lost hope, even in the darkest days, that Pena would beat COVID-19. Even when she was in a coma and had just suffered a miscarriage, he never gave up hope. “If you’re seeing this video, it’s great. It means that we made it,” said Lora.

“Listening to his words they gave me… They gave me hope to think that I was going back home,” Pena said.

Now, more than three months after she first walked through these hospital doors, she’s getting a second chance at life. The same doctors who didn’t know if she’d ever see her family again were the ones who helped save her.

“It’s really hard also, and it’s going to be a long process to process everything that happened,” Pena said.

Pena says her experience goes to show that life can change in the blink of an eye. She hopes that sharing her story will remind everyone to make time for loved ones and create memories that will last forever.