58 days of COVID-19
Donation protected
Eli Centeno is a healthy, young 37 year old non-smoker, with no pre-existing medical conditions. He is a husband and father to 6 beautiful children. Prior to April 2020, he enjoyed going to the gym and spending time with his oldest daughter through training her in boxing, as exercise.
In April, his entire family, including himself, began to experience Influenza-like symptoms. His wife and children improved within days, while Eli’s condition rapidly began to worsen. For 7 days following his initial feelings of sickness, his days were filled with random episodes of fever, body aches, headaches and nausea. He could literally feel his body doing everything it could to fight of the illness. However, the day came where he started to experience shortness of breath and could no longer do so on his own. At this time, he felt it best to go to Palomar Hospital to be checked out since he clearly knew something was not right. What Eli thought to be a common cold contracted from either his wife or kids, which they all recovered from within 3 days, turned out to be the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Eli explained his symptoms to the medical staff, was tested for COVID-19, and was then sent home to wait for his results, which he was instructed would take 7 days to receive. On May 5th, 2020 Eli was in complete distress and struggling to breathe. He reached out to his sister, an LVN at Sharp Chula Vista Hospital, for advice. She instructed him to immediately go to the hospital, and his wife then took him directly to SHARP Memorial Hospital. During his triage, he explained his symptoms, and as a result, he was immediately admitted inpatient and connected to a machine to assist with his oxygen levels. Within the next 5 days of his admission, the oxygen machine was set to full capacity, as Eli’s lungs continued to fail. Doctors decided it best to move Eli into the intensive care unit (ICU), where he would be sedated and intubated. Throughout the next 30 days, Eli’s symptoms were up and down, improving some days, but decreasing on other days. His doctors decided that the last resort would be to place him on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment, which would be considered his last line of defense to allow his heart and lungs to hopefully rest and potentially recover.
Thankfully, the treatment began to work, allowing him to be taken off of the ECMO treatment/machine, but he continued to test positive for COVID-19. That led his doctors to start him on IVIG treatment, with hopes of it clearing the virus, and it worked!
Unfortunately, due to Eli being on a ventilator for such a long period of time, he had to get a tracheotomy, which requires an incision to be made in the windpipe that is supposed to relieve any obstruction to breathing.
Gradually, Eli was finally able to successfully recover enough to be safely discharged home from Sharp Memorial. On July 3rd, 2020, Eli was released from inpatient care and discharged home to the care of his family after spending close to a full 2 months in the ICU.
As you can imagine, after Eli was forced to face and battle COVID-19, he now faces an extreme financial burden, due to being unemployed throughout his hospital stay and recover. Eli is self-employed, a sole earner, and was unable to apply for or receive any kind of income, compensation, or state/ federal government financial assistance. Eli has since applied for benefits through the (EDD) with hopes of being approved for disability benefits, but process is delayed due the current status of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you feel it in your heart, please do consider making a donation to assist Eli and his family financially. Although he is now home, he will continue to be unable to work for some months until he regains his strength and medical professionals approve him to. He is currently undergoing physical therapy to regain full mobility, God Bless and thank you!
Please check out his story online on the below platforms;
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/health/story/2020-07-03/after-five-weeks-on-a-ventilator-young-father-asks-public-to-celebrate-the-fourth-at-home-this-year
https://enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/desktop/sdut/default.aspx?&edid=1c0cf3ea-da77-4849-8930-e14077c853d6
In April, his entire family, including himself, began to experience Influenza-like symptoms. His wife and children improved within days, while Eli’s condition rapidly began to worsen. For 7 days following his initial feelings of sickness, his days were filled with random episodes of fever, body aches, headaches and nausea. He could literally feel his body doing everything it could to fight of the illness. However, the day came where he started to experience shortness of breath and could no longer do so on his own. At this time, he felt it best to go to Palomar Hospital to be checked out since he clearly knew something was not right. What Eli thought to be a common cold contracted from either his wife or kids, which they all recovered from within 3 days, turned out to be the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Eli explained his symptoms to the medical staff, was tested for COVID-19, and was then sent home to wait for his results, which he was instructed would take 7 days to receive. On May 5th, 2020 Eli was in complete distress and struggling to breathe. He reached out to his sister, an LVN at Sharp Chula Vista Hospital, for advice. She instructed him to immediately go to the hospital, and his wife then took him directly to SHARP Memorial Hospital. During his triage, he explained his symptoms, and as a result, he was immediately admitted inpatient and connected to a machine to assist with his oxygen levels. Within the next 5 days of his admission, the oxygen machine was set to full capacity, as Eli’s lungs continued to fail. Doctors decided it best to move Eli into the intensive care unit (ICU), where he would be sedated and intubated. Throughout the next 30 days, Eli’s symptoms were up and down, improving some days, but decreasing on other days. His doctors decided that the last resort would be to place him on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment, which would be considered his last line of defense to allow his heart and lungs to hopefully rest and potentially recover.
Thankfully, the treatment began to work, allowing him to be taken off of the ECMO treatment/machine, but he continued to test positive for COVID-19. That led his doctors to start him on IVIG treatment, with hopes of it clearing the virus, and it worked!
Unfortunately, due to Eli being on a ventilator for such a long period of time, he had to get a tracheotomy, which requires an incision to be made in the windpipe that is supposed to relieve any obstruction to breathing.
Gradually, Eli was finally able to successfully recover enough to be safely discharged home from Sharp Memorial. On July 3rd, 2020, Eli was released from inpatient care and discharged home to the care of his family after spending close to a full 2 months in the ICU.
As you can imagine, after Eli was forced to face and battle COVID-19, he now faces an extreme financial burden, due to being unemployed throughout his hospital stay and recover. Eli is self-employed, a sole earner, and was unable to apply for or receive any kind of income, compensation, or state/ federal government financial assistance. Eli has since applied for benefits through the (EDD) with hopes of being approved for disability benefits, but process is delayed due the current status of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you feel it in your heart, please do consider making a donation to assist Eli and his family financially. Although he is now home, he will continue to be unable to work for some months until he regains his strength and medical professionals approve him to. He is currently undergoing physical therapy to regain full mobility, God Bless and thank you!
Please check out his story online on the below platforms;
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/health/story/2020-07-03/after-five-weeks-on-a-ventilator-young-father-asks-public-to-celebrate-the-fourth-at-home-this-year
https://enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/desktop/sdut/default.aspx?&edid=1c0cf3ea-da77-4849-8930-e14077c853d6
Organizer
Ramon Camarillo
Organizer
San Marcos, CA