PORT ARTHUR, Texas — A Southeast Texas woman is home from the hospital five months to the day since she was admitted while battling COVID-19.
Family members and nurses lined up at the medical center of Southeast Texas to send off Kristin Guidry with a lot of love.
Kristin Guidry spent days, weeks, and months here at the medical center battling COVID-19.
On Wednesday, she was able to come out of those doors and head to a place she calls home.
“I'm thankful for everyone here and everything they did. And they didn't give up,” Guidry said.
And neither did she.
“People that go in and get on a vent sometimes most of the time they don't make it,” Guidry said.
Lacey Mitchell told 12News her mom tested positive for COVID-19 at the end of June by the first of July she was hospitalized.
“So on July 5, she got moved to the ICU and on the sixth, she was intubated. She had to be intubated for about 10 days,” Mitchell said.
Through feeding tubes, dialysis, and chest tubes, Guidry’s health eventually got better.
“She was able to come off the dialysis off the vent off the sedation off of all IV drips and it's just been progress ever since,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell says Guidry’s nurses at Medical Center of Southeast Texas became her family away from home.
“There were a lot of people who were very integral to her progress that wasn't even from here,” Mitchell said.
“I was the first nurse is to see her come to the floor...and now I'm the last nurse to see her leave the floor -- leave the actual leave the hospital,” said traveling nurse Shadricia Day.
Day calls Guidry’s story one of faith.
“COVID is a lot for a patient it can become overwhelming. They can't see their family, so we are their family,” Day said.
So, after 152 days of recovering from COVID-19 and its complications Guidry is encouraging you to roll up your sleeves.
“Get your vaccination. Take it seriously. It tore me from head to toe. It affected every part of my body. And I'll never be so careless,” Mitchell said.
Guidry's daughter also said she knows her mom's story inspired others to get vaccinated.