NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Four days after a long-term COVID-19 patient was discharged from Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, a second patient followed suit.
Michael Gawel was released from Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center Tuesday morning after being hospitalized for 68 days; most of his time there was spent on a ventilator in the ICU.
Gawl was admitted to the hospital back in November around the same time as his father, who also had COVID-19. His father died from the virus in mid-December, but Gawel continued to fight and made what some staff members at the hospital are calling a "miraculous recovery."
"I think I was gone a couple of times and they brought me back," Gawel said. "And my wife, I think if it wasn't for her and everybody here, I'd be gone. I'd be dead."
Nurses and doctors celebrated his discharge on Tuesday, something Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center's President and CEO Joe Ruffolo says is important to do since so many stories don't have this happy ending.
"We've been at this now for 10 months and counting," Ruffolo said. "We have cared for over 500 COVID patients to date. Many many success stories, but the ones that you lose — for every one that you lose you go through that emotional pain and experience. So when we have the number of patients that we have that recovered successfully, it really rings out the need to celebrate."
Gawel is headed to another facility to continue his recovery.
