A New Mexico man has returned home after spending more than 500 days in the hospital battling Covid.
Donnell Hunter spent more than a year hospitalized, finally leaving Kindred Hospital Albuquerque, according to NBC News affiliate KOB4.
As Hunter returned home, neighbors lined the road with signs of encouragement. His return even garnered a police escort, according to KOB4.
“I can’t even put it into words,” Hunter told KOB4 of his return home.
Since his hospitalization Hunter became a grandfather, and got to meet his grandson.
“He’s a year now and he acts like he had been knowing me all his life so as soon as I woke up this morning he was the first thing on my mind,” he told KOB4.
Although he is now home, Hunter is still on the road to recovery.
After being hospitalized in Sept. 2020, he was sedated and put on a ventilator due to the severity of his condition, KOB4 reported.
“I lost usage of my hands, of my arms, of everything my legs so I had to wait for all that to come back and do a lot of rehab speech therapy learn how to eat learn how to swallow I had to learn everything all over again,” Hunter said.
Hunter’s wife, Ashley Hunter, described his care as having to care for a newborn, who is learning how to do things for the first time. Still, she told the news outlet, her husband has come a long way.
“I wanted him to come home and feel like home I didn’t want to feel like we were in the hospital so I tried to make things look as least hospital looking as possible,” she said.
Hunter said while he was hospitalized, he often dreamed that he was home, only to wake and realize he was still in the hospital.
“Because when I was in the hospital I had many dreams that I was home and I’d wake up, and like I said, ‘it was all a dream,'” Hunter said.
He said he put his faith in his religion, adding he’s “just going to trust in the lord whatever he brings my way that’s what I will deal with.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
