APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — After spending 49 days at an Appleton hospital, a man who survived COVID-19 says he’s lucky to be alive.
Charles Estrada, 57, has been living in Berlin for the past three years but grew up in the San Fernando Valley, near Los Angeles.
“When I was growing up, and throughout my life, I needed to worry about gangs, being mugged, and things like that,” he said. “I didn’t think I was in danger of the virus in a small town in Wisconsin. I was definitely wrong.”
Estrada says he woke up in May with a severe stomach ache. When he went to the hospital, he and other family members tested positive for COVID-19. He was taken to ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Appleton, and after that, it was a blur.
“I cannot remember very much of my time in the hospital,” he recalled. “The only thing that stands out to me is when the nurses were encouraging me to wake up, trying to get me to breathe on my own.”
Estrada was in both the ICU and on the COVID unit. He was intubated for two weeks.
“My family called to get updates from the doctors and nurses,” he said. “I remember my family telling me later that they did not think I was going to make it. That is how serious it was for me.”
Overcoming the odds, Estrada survived.
Now, he has a long recovery ahead of him. He says he still needs oxygen every day.
Looking back, Estrada said he wished he would have taken more precautions.
“I was not vaccinated, not masking,” he said. “I was relatively healthy. I worked out. I just never thought this would happen to me.”
Now, things have changed.
“Many of my family members have recently gotten the vaccine,” he said. “They saw what I went through, and didn’t want that to happen to them.”
As of late August 2021, 54% of Wisconsinites have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In the Fox Valley region, about 50% of the total population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. That number includes Estrada, who recently completed the vaccine series, and said he is proud of his choice.
“The number one thing I would tell people now – get vaccinated,” he said. “Don’t go through what I went through. If there is anything you can do to avoid the virus, do it.”
ThedaCare encourages all community members who are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, do so.
In addition to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, ThedaCare also encourages community members to adhere to masking recommendations from the CDC, stay home when you are feeling sick, get tested if you have symptoms of COVID-19 and physically distance when you are with others outside of your household.
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