Two men reunited Tuesday after both battling life-threatening conditions at the same New Jersey hospital. Now, their message to others: keep on fighting.
“For both of them, the situations they were in were really dire. You don’t see survival rates being very high,” said advanced nurse clinician Jaclyn Patterson.
Erik and Frank are two "walking medical miracles" who returned to Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes in Camden, New Jersey on Tuesday to visit the doctors and nurses who saved their lives – and each other.
On New Year’s Eve of 2021, Erik was brought to the hospital after a massive heart attack that had taken a turn for the worse. He spent the next two and a half months hospitalized with bleeding in his airways, kidney failure, pneumonia, and time on and off life support.
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Erik expressed his gratitude for the hard work from doctors and nurses, saying he “really appreciate[s] everything [they] did for us,” and that he "may have only been here two or three months of my life, but these guys really put their hearts and souls into getting me better."
The medical team at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes made the miracle happen, but Erik drew inspiration from his new friend Frank to keep on fighting.
Frank had suffered for weeks from potentially-fatal complications from COVID. After recovering, Frank returned to the hospital to visit his life-saving medical team while Erik was fighting for his life, and he gave him a pep talk to push through.
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“Look at me," Frank told him. "I was where you are a little while ago and here I am walking around talking like nothing happened."
Erik wants to pass it forward and do the same for others, because, he says, both him and Frank are living proof of miracles.
“If I had something to say to them… you can do it. You can come back. It’ll take work. It’ll hurt. You’ll sweat and may even cry, but you’ll get there,” said Erik.
