SAN ANTONIO – A family of 12 is singing praises and breathing a big sigh of relief after all of them recovered from the coronavirus.
The last family member was released Wednesday from the hospital.
Bob Tejeda, 49, spent 25 days in the Intensive Care Unit and was on a ventilator, said his sister, Selene Morrow.
“It was extremely scary. I mean, literally, we’re living on a prayer,” Morrow said.
Morrow said in mid-March, Tejeda attended a party in Houston. A few days after Tejeda returned home, he didn’t feel right.
“He felt like, ‘This is something I’ve never felt before compared to the flu,'"Morrow said. “But yeah, he kind of knew that, ‘Oh, I bet you I have Covid19.’"
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By that time, Tejeda had been around 11 other family members who live in his home and next door, Morrow said. Among those who got infected were toddlers and their elderly parents.
“My mom and my dad were both admitted into the emergency room because they started feeling the same symptoms as my brother,” Morrow said. The rest of the family members self-quarantined at home and all 11 recovered. Tejeda continued his fight alone in the hospital.
“He is a pure miracle in the living right now,” Morrow said.
The family said they are tight-knit family and they learned quickly how dangerous visiting with each other can be during this time.
“This can happen to anyone. If it happened to us, it could happen to you,” Morrow said.
The family will not be able to visit with Tejeda until after he’s released from the rehabilitation facility, which they hope will be in a few more weeks.
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March. The first case confirmed in the U.S. was in mid-January and the first case confirmed in San Antonio was in mid-February.
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