Wife Sends Mariachi Serenade To Ailing Husband In ICU At St. Jude

FULLERTON, CA — The wife of an Anaheim man wanted to give her husband the gift of music while he remains in intensive care due to coronavirus. On Monday, Patty Trejo hoped to lift her husband Joseph's spirits through Mariachi song, and in doing so, uplifted the embattled ICU workers at St. Jude's Medical Center.

Inside the intensive care unit at St. Jude's, ventilators whoosh, and hospital equipment beeps. This is the cadence of coronavirus, and it is the only sound in the ICU ward where Joseph Trejo is in the battle of his life. The 53-year-old has been in the intensive care unit for about a month, a family spokesperson says. Recently, Joseph was put on a ventilator when he also contracted pneumonia.

At 53-years-old, Joseph was otherwise healthy until he contracted COVID-19. Since then, Patty, his wife of 38 years, has been in constant prayer for her husband's life.

The Trejo family has been hit hard with coronavirus during the pandemic. One month ago, Patty's father died due to coronavirus—on the same day, her husband was admitted to the hospital. Both of their sons have suffered the virus, and Patty herself has dealt with COVID-19 twice.

Having her soul-mate unresponsive in the ICU was not an option, she says.

Patty Trejo works as a teacher’s aide in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, and her husband, Joseph Trejo, is a locksmith for the Anaheim Union High School District. Anaheim has ranked among the hardest-hit cities coronavirus since the pandemic began almost one year ago.

On Monday, Patty worked with the hospital to produce a small concert from the parking lot outside her husband's room and enlisted a local Mariachi band.

She stood outside with the band, sharing the music over Facetime for several hours Monday. Inside the hospital, nurses held a device hoping that Joseph might hear the music from his medically induced coma.

The Mariachis played his favorite song, "La Mano de Dios," or "The Hand of God," among other songs.

"People say that they can't hear you (in a medically induced coma), but I know he can," Patty told reporters at the scene. "I know he can because I started to pray even harder, and he opened his eyes again. I know he heard me, and I know he heard the music."