Woman who spent 65 days in a coma due to COVID-19 urges vaccination

A California woman who spent two months in a coma because of COVID-19 complications after contracting the disease while unvaccinated is now urging others to receive the vaccine, reports CNN.

Andrea Arriaga Borges, a mother to five children, became infected with COVID-19 in May 2021 and soon afterwards landed in the emergency room, according to CNN. 

“I was in a coma for 65 days. I spent a total of four-and-a-half months in the hospital,” Borges told CNN, adding, “I couldn’t walk. I lost my motor skills and my muscle, dropped about 35 pounds, and came home in a wheelchair, re-learned how to walk again.”

The 48-year-old woman made a miraculous recovery from her COVID-19 infection after doctors gave her loved ones a grim outlook for her future, she told the outlet.

“The doctors told my children, my sister, my husband that I had, like, a 5% chance of survival,” Borges told CNN. But the COVID-19 survivor was able to go home at the end of August. 

However, Borges still suffers from some lingering effects of her experience, with her voice remaining raspy from the tracheotomy she had to receive while infected, as she was on a feeding tube for months and could not speak, reports CNN. 

“I thought I was going to be sick for four or five days and then be fine, and that’s not how it went. I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through. The only thing I can say is just have an extra layer of protection and get vaccinated. Get the booster. I feel like everyone should have a choice, but at the same time it’s about protecting yourself and others,” Borges said.