South Florida medical technician, 41, is released from the hospital NINE MONTHS after she fell gravely ill with COVID-19 as doctors say she needed to relearn how to walk and may have her fingertips amputated

A 41-year-old South Florida hospital technician who had to relearn how to walk and perform basic daily tasks after being diagnosed with COVID-19 has left the hospital after a nine-month-long stay.

Rosa Felipe needed the aid of a walker as she left a rehabilitation center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami on Tuesday.

Felipe has worked at that same hospital as an EEG technician for the past 15 years. Her medical ordeal will likely mean that she will lose her fingertips due to complications that arose from her treatment.

The married mother of two children, who had underlying conditions including asthma and diabetes, pleaded with the public to take the virus seriously.

Rosa Felipe, 41, an EEG technician at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, walked out of the hospital on Tuesday nine months after she was diagnosed with COVID-19

Doctors said Felipe had to relearn how to walk and that she will need to undergo further rehabilitation after falling gravely ill from the disease

Felipe spent two months in the intensive care unit. During her hospitalization, she was put on a ventilator and had to undergo dialysis after suffering from kidney failure

‘Corona is real!’ Felipe told WTVJ-TV.

‘The effects are real! But what’s more real is the love that I’ve received here.

‘The dedication from my doctors and all the staff here.’

Felipe became gravely ill, requiring doctors to intubate her. She also spent two months in the intensive care unit.

The virus left her unable to move any of the muscles in her legs. She also suffered from a severe skin ulceration.

Dr. Lauren Shapiro, her rehabilitation physician, said that whenever she tried to get out of bed, her blood pressure dropped precipitously.

Felipe, 41 (left and right), tested positive for coronavirus on March 9. Her condition deteriorated due to underlying health conditions and she needed to be hospitalized and placed on a ventilator

Doctors believe Felipe developed blood clots, which caused her fingers to become necrotic and turn black

Felipe’s condition was so grave that at one point she and her doctors had doubts as to whether she would survive.

‘I’m overcome with emotion because I didn’t think I was going to make it,’ she told reporters outside the hospital.

‘I had a huge wound down to the bone in my back. I was always afraid of infection.

‘The pain that I felt when they would move my legs.

‘And if you would have told me back then that I would come out walking, with difficulty, but I’m standing.

‘And I’m not going to give up. I’m going to get better.’

Felipe initially contracted the coronavirus back in early March. Her condition quickly deteriorated and she was hospitalized, spending two months on a ventilator.

The ventilator saved Felipe's life but she suffered extensive tissue and muscle damage that had made her fingers go necrotic and turn black.

Felipe told the Miami Herald that she likely caught the virus due to poor safety measures that were put in place by hospital administrators.

'At the beginning of the crisis, the precautions and protections were activated too late,' she said. 

'They told us to stretch our mask use to two weeks. There was a note on the board: "Wear your N-95 mask until it is soiled or wet and then you can exchange it."

'We made our own face shields with Krazy Glue. We bought the material on the internet with our own money.'  

A spokesperson told the newspaper that about five percent of the 12,500 workers at Jackson health system have tested positive for COVID-19. 

Felipe also had to travel throughout the hospital testing brain activity in many patients, which only increased her risk of exposure.

The mother-of-two, who is overweight, also has two underlying health conditions that likely worsened her condition, diabetes and asthma.

She was first placed on a ventilator before being placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, the Herald reported. 

Felipe thanked the doctors and nurses at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami on Tuesday after her release

Felipe and doctors said that there were doubts as to whether she would survive

Both of her hands up to her wrists may have to be amputated but some of her fingers on her left hand may be saved. Pictured: Felipe's necrotic fingers 

The machine, typically used for those with heart and lung issues, pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, which allows the heart and lungs to rest. 

According to the Herald, she needed to undergo dialysis after her kidneys began showing signs of failure.   

Before being intubated, Felipe told CNN she asked a physician for a piece of paper so she could write a goodbye note to her children.

'I wrote on the paper to my children that I wanted them not to give up, and not to be upset with God,' she said.

'Because if something were to happen to me, this was his will and I didn't want them to be upset with God, I wanted them to be loving and happy that God allowed us to have the time that we did have.'  

Doctors believe Felipe developed blood clots and didn't have enough blood flow to her fingers, which turned them black. 

A surgical team told her she will probably need to have both hands be amputated at the wrist, although they might be able to save some fingers on her left hand, the Herald reported.

Felipe said what keeps her going is the thought of being able to see her sons - 12-year-old Saiid and five-year-old Ishaan, soon. 

'I know that in the end, I'm going to be with them...I know that,' she told CNN.

'So that's what keeps me focused, and it keeps me wanting to heal and wanting to get out of here fully restored.'  

Felipe's niece has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the cost of medical expense as well as ease the financial burden on Felipe's children. 

The US recorded 2,534 new deaths yesterday. Deaths from COVID-19 in the US are now soaring to more than 2,200 a day on a seven-day rolling average, matching the frightening peak reached last April

Cases per day are eclipsing 200,000 on average for the first time on record. A total of 215,586 new coronavirus cases were reported yesterday

As of Wednesday afternoon, more than $15,600 was raised out of a $50,000 goal.

The first signs of a Thanksgiving COVID surge are now being seen across the United States with 2,500 Americans dying on Tuesday, hospitalizations spiking to a record 104,600 and infections climbing in 36 states. 

Deaths from COVID-19 in the US have soared to more than 2,200 a day on average, matching the frightening peak reached at the height of the pandemic last April, and cases per day have eclipsed 200,000 on average for the first time on record.

Health officials warn the crisis is all but certain to get worse because of the fallout from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's despite CDC warnings not to travel or to gather in groups for the holidays. 

The US recorded 2,534 deaths and 215,586 new coronavirus cases yesterday, while the number of people currently hospitalized reached a record 104,600.  

More than 286,000 Americans have now died from the virus and the US has surpassed 15 million infections since the start of the pandemic. 

Nearly every state has reported a peak number of new cases in the first few days of December and some are also showing a troubling rise in hospitalizations, according to the COVID Tracking Project. 

Only North Dakota and New Mexico have recorded a drop in their seven-day average for new cases in the past week compared to the week before. Thirty six other states continue to see increases.