Coronavirus Patient Returns From 'Close To Death,' Doctor Recalls

PARK RIDGE, IL — Ever since Juan Mota Cruz of Niles got out of the hospital early in July, he wanted to properly thank the medical staff who saved his life and cared for him for nearly three months at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.

The 45-year-old fence builder and native of Mexico felt he couldn’t thank the staff the right way because he doesn’t speak much English, doesn’t know any of the doctors’ names and doesn’t even remember much from what was going on around him while in the ICU and on a ventilator.

He was particularly thankful to a therapist who gave him a brand new walker the day of his release, as he understood she paid for it out of her own pocket.

“The hospital provides walkers free of charge to every patient who needs one upon discharge. The patient must have misunderstood,” Advocate Lutheran General clarified, when asked to help identify the therapist mentioned in our July story.

As to the names of Mota Cruz’s saviors, there are just too many to mention. Approximately 12 therapists, countless nurses and many doctors cared for him throughout his stay. One of them was Dr. Nisha Patel.

Patel admitted Mota Cruz to Lutheran General in the beginning of April with what she describes as a “very severe case of COVID-19”. That, along with his prolonged hospital stay, amazing recovery and sweet personality, made him a very memorable patient, Patel said.

“For someone who is this young, and otherwise a healthy and strong individual, it was surprising that he got this severe,” Patel recalled.

Mota Cruz eventually required intubation and was put on a ventilator for over a month. It was in the middle of the surge, and, due to a large number of patients, Patel couldn’t follow him for a while when he was in the ICU, she explained.

“So It was pretty amazing to later see him get out of the ICU. He woke up, and was just sitting up and said ‘I'm hungry,’” Patel recalled, laughing. “Next thing he said was how appreciative he was of everything that everybody has been doing for him.”

“It was a huge success and an amazing feeling to see someone going from being critically ill, close to death actually, to being able to walk out of the hospital, not on oxygen, having the trach tube out, and just be home with his family,” Patel said.

Patel, a hospital physician board certified in internal medicine, has been taking care of COVID patients since the beginning of the pandemic. She is currently seeing up to twenty patients on a daily basis, most of them with the coronavirus.

“Emotions are hundred percent involved. I always think, ‘What if this was one of my family’s members? How would I want them to be treated?’ Taking emotions out of it wouldn’t make me a better physician,” Patel reflected.

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However, she doesn’t want to take credit for Mota Cruz’s recovery for herself.

“There were just so many people involved that it’s hard to give you a number. There were nurses taking care of him around the clock, as well as a number of different therapists: physical, occupational, speech, respiratory, and even patient care technicians. Everybody was on the team, trying to be as aggressive as they could to get him better. Everybody really contributed,” Patel said.

As to the proper way to thank the medical team for saving Mota Cruz’s life — the best gratitude is that he is alive and well, Patel said.

“Having him walk out of the hospital was in itself extremely gratifying. These are the things that we get. We are so happy he’s doing well,” she said.