CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — For several days early this year, Veronica "Roni" Garcia tried to let her own body battle COVID-19 from the comfort of her own home.
But on the night of January 8, her husband Daniel says Roni's face turned purple and she was mumbling incoherently.
He called 911, paramedics determined she had dangerously low blood oxygen levels, and an ambulance rushed her to Bay Area Hospital.
“The doctor came out and he was like, ‘Sir, I just wanted to thank you," Daniel said. "What you did — you saved your wife’s life. Because if you wouldn’t have called, possibly she wouldn’t have made it and she would have passed away there at the house.”
Veronica spent two months on a ventilator in the intensive care unit.
She was then transferred to two other medical facilities for in-patient rehabilitation.
But Daniel says their insurance maxed out in late May and no longer paid for Roni's care.
So on August 1, with an estimated $100,000 in medical bills racked up, he brought Roni home.
“Doing home health, I mean, yeah it will help her," Daniel said. "But it’s not going to help as much as it would doing that intense therapy (in in-patient rehab) when she was getting anywhere from three to five hours, seven days a week."
After Daniel pulled some strings with his insurance company, Roni receives physical, occupational, and speech therapy at home three times a week.
Now his attention is focused on paying those bills.
Daniel started a Go Fund Me page that as of Thursday had raised almost $6,000.
“Me and my wife, we just want to thank everyone who has donated," Daniel said. "Even if they haven’t donated, (thank you to) any friends and family who’ve been sending food and praying for us."
