“My message, technically, is: if you’re entitled to the vaccine, do it,” Paulina Velasquez told CNN from her home in Coral Gables, Broward County, Florida. “I plan to get vaccinated as soon as my doctor lets us know when I can.”
Paulina, 15, was scheduled to be vaccinated earlier this summer. But then he died of a runny nose and then headaches appeared. He lost his sense of taste and smell. The breathing became hard.
On July 11, he tested positive for coronavirus. Less than a week later, the second, healthy, energetic high school student was in an emergency room at Fort Lauderdale Hospital struggling to breathe normally.
It was very scary, he said.
Because her oxygen levels were low, doctors immediately put her on a ventilator.
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“It was the scariest moment I was told because I didn’t know what to expect,” Agnes Velasquez said. At first, she didn’t want her daughter to carry a fan, but she was told her daughter’s condition could get worse.
He then told the medical staff, “Do what you can to save my daughter’s life.”
Paulina also had pneumonia and went into a medically induced coma. The mother made the decision to stay in her daughter’s room, where she was told she could not leave.
Last month, Agnes Velasquez told CNN that every day she would tell her daughter, “Fight for your life.”
Paulina’s doctor, Dr. Venu Devabhaktuni, medical director of Broward Health’s pediatric ICU, said in August that the teen was “ready” while on a ventilator.
“Things could have gone wrong quickly, but he recovered because he is a small, healthy child. I think that was conducive to him recovering,” Devabhaktuni said.
After nearly a month, Paulina was well enough to return home from Broward Health Medical Center.
He does physical therapy to get stronger. Her arms and legs are still weak, but she can now walk on her own.
You also have to work at learning how to pick up and hold things.
Paulina said she gets better every day and wants others to avoid a similar experience.
“It’s a very serious virus. This virus doesn’t pick and choose who to infect,” he said, in his words to the unvaccinated. “I could hit you as hard as I could. And I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through.”
Doctors say that when Paulina is strong enough to get vaccinated.