[ad_1]
For 10 long days, Joe Trejo had been hooked up to a ventilator in the intensive care unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, unable to communicate with his wife, Patty, and their three sons.
But on Monday, as a mariachi band played the couple’s favorite song in the parking lot and sent it to the ICU via a smartphone, she said, Joe responded – if ever so subtly.
“I know he heard me and I know he heard the music,” she said, referring to “La Mano de Dios” (“The hand of God”), rendered by Aurelio Reyes el Gallo de Chiapas, a mariachi trio she hired.
Patty Trejo arranged a mariachi band to play “La Mano de Dios” (“The Hand of God”), the favorite song of her husband, Joe.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
“When I spoke to him, he spoke a little and he opened his eyes and his body moved,” she said. “I started to pray even harder, and he opened his eyes again.… I had to put my arms around him and [hold] his hand, and I have to kiss it.
Patty, 54, a teacher assistant in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, said she knew Joe, a 53-year-old locksmith from the Anaheim Union High School District, was not out of danger.
He’s been in hospital for a month with COVID-19 and battling complications from pneumonia since being put on a ventilator – the same day his 95-year-old father, Epie Rios, died after his fight against the virus.
Patty and two of the couple’s three sons – Chris, Matthew and Joseph, aged 18 to 31 – also had COVID-19 and have recovered. All were in the hospital on Monday and all are hopeful that Joe will be okay.
Nurse Celina Mande holds a phone displaying the mariachi band.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
She said he doesn’t like to be the center of attention and won’t be happy that she has made his illness public. But she said she had to do it to thank their friends and colleagues and to enlist new “prayer warriors” to shoot for him.
“We hope the pneumonia gets better, and once that gets better he can start to recover,” said Patty. “He gives me the strength to keep going and to keep fighting, and I just want to say thank you to everyone who got us through this.
Patty said she knew the chances of her husband staying on a ventilator are increasing every day.
“I know they say if he’s not stopped after 10 days the chances are slim,” she said. “But I say, OK, it takes a while to heal and I’ve seen miracles. He will be our miracle. “
[ad_2]
Source link