USA: Increase in hospitalization of children due to covid-19 1:00
(CNN) -
It was just a few walks around a hospital bed, but seeing her 15-year-old daughter off the ventilator and able to walk brought Agnes Velasquez to tears.
It was the first time that Paulina walked since she was hospitalized with covid-19.
"It was my idea," Paulina said.
"The physical therapist came and we used the walker and we walked around the bed about three times. He was happy."
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Velasquez said that the fear she had for her daughter's life was replaced by joy and happiness.
"I feel like a big stone has popped out of my chest," he said.
Agnes Velasquez, who lived in her teenage daughter's intensive care room (ICU) for days, has seen her daughter disconnected from the ventilator.
Velasquez said he didn't expect to see his daughter walk again so soon.
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"I thought it would take a little longer as he recently came off the ventilator and came out of a coma," he said.
Velasquez said physical therapists went to her daughter's room Wednesday and asked her to walk.
"And he did and he didn't want to stop. I wanted to walk and walk and there were only tears in my eyes."
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This is the opinion of a doctor
Velasquez has been living in her daughter's intensive care room at Broward Health Medical Center for weeks, praying she would survive COVID-19.
Paulina's physician, Dr. Venu Devabhaktuni, medical director of Broward Health's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU), said the teenager's situation was "unpredictable" while on the ventilator.
"Things could have gone bad quickly, but she recovered because she is a healthy young girl. That I think was in favor of her recovery," Devabhaktuni said.
This mother prays for her daughter to survive the covid-19 3:08
Both Velasquez and her daughter said they encourage other people, especially teens, to get vaccinated.
"I think you should get vaccinated," said Paulina, who was not vaccinated.
"I don't want anyone to go through what I went through. And I don't want anyone's parents to go through what my parents went through and saw."
It was two weeks ago that CNN first spoke to Velasquez on a video call from the hospital room.
At that time, Paulina had been hospitalized for about 10 days.
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Velasquez said he told his daughter every day: "Fight for your life."
She said that when her daughter started feeling sick and couldn't breathe, the teenager called her mother for help.
Velasquez said she ran to her daughter's aid without a mask, not thinking that the deadly virus had already infiltrated her home.
Days later, the concerned mother tested positive despite being vaccinated against the virus.
"Most likely she gave it to me," said Velasquez, who suffered only minor symptoms.
The mother then said that her children were in the process of being vaccinated.
Velasquez was helping coordinate her vaccinations from her daughter's room, where she spent every hour of the day with her daughter.
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CNN's Rosa Flores, John Couwels and Kacey Cherry contributed to this report.
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