Bettina Lerman, 69, spent a month in an induced coma connected to a ventilator in Portland, Maine, after contracting COVID-19, when doctors told her family that she would not survive.
"They told us,
his mother is never going to wake up,"
his son, Andrew Lerman, told The Washington Post.
So he and his brothers planned to disconnect her and began the paperwork for her death: they canceled her Florida rental, donated many of her belongings and even planned the clothes she would wear on the day of her funeral.
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They were about to choose their headstone
when Lerman got a call.
It was the doctor telling him to go to the hospital.
His mother had awakened.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 768,700 people have died from COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 68.8% of the nation's population is fully vaccinated.
Despite this, hospitalizations continue to increase in the country even among those who are fully vaccinated.
"We are beginning to see an increase in hospitalizations among people who have been vaccinated but have not received the booster dose," warned Dr. Anthony Fauci a few days ago.
Concern about declining immunity against severe coronavirus infection comes as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to authorize the booster shot of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine for all adults older than 18 years.
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"A medical miracle"
Bettina contracted coronavirus in early September in Maine, where she had traveled to care for a family member who was battling cancer.
She was not vaccinated against COVID-19.
"He planned to get vaccinated before leaving Florida but time is up," his son told the aforementioned outlet.
After a week in the hospital, the woman was put on an artificial respirator and fell into a month-long coma.
Doctors told his family that
his lungs "were destroyed."
[Pfizer asks federal authorities to authorize its COVID-19 pill]
Doctors believed that he would not survive as he
had diabetes
and had undergone a quadruple bypass operation.
"Her doctors say it is
a medical miracle
and they have never seen anyone go through what she has been through," Andrew's sister Jennifer Miele wrote on a fundraising page.
Bettina has come out of intensive care, according to her son, though she still
needs help breathing
and they are looking for a rehab hospital for her.
You are receiving physical therapy to help you rebuild the muscle strength you lost.
[10 Ways The COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Life In America]
Lerman told CNN in Spanish that on Wednesday he spoke with his mother, who can breathe on her own for hours on a little oxygen instead of a respirator, as well as move her hands and arms.
He said that both he and his mother plan to get vaccinated when she recovers and that his mother's illness changed his perspective on vaccination.