PARMA, Ohio — A Parma man is home from two months battling COVID-19 in the hospital. He tells 3News that he is overjoyed and blessed beyond belief.
74-year-old Jerry Gustin was discharged from University Hospitals Parma Medical Center on Wednesday morning after spending 57 days recovering from the coronavirus – including 23 days in the intensive care unit.
"After I hugged my wife and kissed her...I looked up and I saw all of these people and I saw the TV guy...and it just broke my heart, I loved it, I just loved it."
Gustin says he wasn't sure if he was going to make it out of the hospital alive.
"I thought I was going to die, I got in the ICU and I couldn't breathe," he said. “Oh my god, what am I going to do? I started to panic."
Gustin calls being home the "the best feeling in the world." He says that is especially true because he is surrounded by his wife Linda of 48 years, four kids, and eight grandchildren.
"[The first thing I did when I got home was] kiss my wife, hold my wife, hug my kids,” he said. “I came home, and I walked around the house sat down and I go oh my god, I am home. I was so happy, I was ecstatic, I couldn't believe it, it was the best feeling in the world."
He's grateful for home-cooked meals once again, and he's hoping to ditch his walker soon so he can cut the grass, which he calls his therapy. Gustin says he’s focused on walking and taking steps each and every day with the help of his wife.
“I've been married 48 years and when you take that away for that amount of time, it hurts, it really does,” he said.
Gustin says he hopes that others across the country and in Ohio will listen to the Governor and state officials.
"It's not a hard task, put the mask on and it could save your life, I'll tell you what, this is a killer it's a killer disease, people are dying," he said. "I'm going to start to cry again, but come on, I want the people to listen."
“Only approximately 40 percent of vented patients, according to national statistics, ever leave the hospital after having COVID-19,” UH officials said in a press release. “This man is proud of his accomplishment, after 23 days in the ICU, a stint at Regency Hospital and returning to regain strength with intensive rehabilitation in our Acute Rehabilitation Unit, which strengthens him to function in his activities of daily living so he can return home safely.”