COVID Patient Stories
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The STS mission is to advance cardiothoracic surgeons’ delivery of the highest quality patient care through collaboration, education, research, and advocacy.
With much of the country still in pandemic crisis mode, powerful patient stories continue to resonate with people everywhere. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons is highlighting two particularly interesting stories from COVID survivors who were on ECMO for months, with one patient eventually underdoing a double lung transplantation.
Reynaldo Valdez shares his extraordinary COVID-19 journey, which included months in the hospital, cardiac arrest, stroke, and a double lung transplant performed at Houston Methodist. Mr. Valdez also shares inspiring details about his will to live and his continued recovery.
Maria Young spent 130 days in The Johns Hopkins Hospital—69 on ECMO and more than 100 intubated. She shares her amazing story of survival and recovery, which has become the inspiration for the nonprofit organization, “Maria’s Miracle.”
September 2021
The STS mission is to advance cardiothoracic surgeons’ delivery of the highest quality patient care through collaboration, education, research, and advocacy.