A 43-year-old father of two is thankful to be alive after waking up from a coma following his COVID-19 diagnosis.
Antonio Ellis, a New Jersey police officer, told People (the TV show!) he first began experiencing COVID symptoms in early March of last year.
“I thought I had bronchitis. I had a cough that wouldn't go away," Antonio explained. "After a few days I went to a local doctor."
He was put on an ECMO machine and place into a coma just days later.
"The last text that he sent me on March 19 was, 'I don't want to scare you, but I think they're going to vent me,'" said his wife, Carla, a kindergarten teacher. "I just responded, 'Don't be afraid. You're strong. You've got this.'"
"I had like a 0 percent chance of survival, but ECMO provided me a 50 percent chance," Ellis added.
A month later, Ellis woke from the coma and was transferred to a rehab facility in Philadelphia to continue his recovery.
"It was like a bad science fiction movie," he said. "The world had changed. I had a full beard and I found out I was in a coma. It was so bizarre."
Ellis suffered significant cognitive deficiencies due to swelling and bleeding in his brain.
"I would stand up and no function in my legs," he shared. "It was really, really hard. I had to learn to eat again with a fork and knife, I couldn't open a soda can, I couldn't remember anything, you could give me a series of numbers and I wouldn't be able to repeat them back...all of that had to be learned."
After being released from the hospital months later, Ellis' entire neighborhood celebrated his recovery upon his return home.
"The whole town was there giving us a welcome," he said. "It was just beyond unbelievable."
Ellis is currently working on being able to return to work with the Manchester Police Department on a full-time basis, the outlet noted.
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