A Maryland man is grateful to be alive this Thanksgiving after a long battle with the coronavirus. Aimee Cho reports.
A Maryland man is grateful to be alive this Thanksgiving after a long battle with the coronavirus.
Patrick Bright and his wife, Pamela, of Clinton both got COVID-19 in late March. His case was so severe he was in the hospital for almost two months.
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“Each day I had to suffer myself with the COVID and waking up wondering if he would make it through the night,” Pamela Bright said.
For sixteen of those nights, Patrick Bright was on a ventilator.
“They only gave me three days to live,” he said. “My wife asked should she plan funeral arrangements, and they said yes.”
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Thankfully, she never had to use those plans.
Coronavirus Cases in DC, Maryland and Virginia
COVID-19 cases by population in D.C. and by county in Maryland and Virginia
Source: DC, MD and VA Health Departments
Credit: Anisa Holmes / NBC Washington
Patrick Bright was the first patient in the D.C. area to receive plasma treatment. It only took a few days for him to get better.
He left the hospital to a hero’s welcome in May.
He said he still has a way to go on his recovery. He had to relearn how to walk and suffered kidney and heart damage.
But he said one of the biggest lessons he learned in his years working as a Pentagon police officer was to never give up.
He’s spending Thanksgiving with family in South Carolina.
“To be here for my very first Thanksgiving after the ordeal is awesome,” he said. “It’s the greatest thing ever.”
“I still pinch myself in the morning just to make sure that it’s still real and that he’s here and that we’ve made it to Thanksgiving,” Pamela Bright said.
