Adelanto Mayor Pro Tem Gerry Hernandez, who had been hospitalized since March after getting coronavirus and was once near-death, finally got to go home Wednesday.
"I know you can't tell but I'm smiling, guys," he said.
His wife Tracy couldn't contain her excitement and her relief.
"I'm so excited. Sorry, I'm trying not to get upset too, because it's been really hard," she said.
It's been a long road to recovery for Gerry. The journey began in mid-March when he became so sick from COVID-19 that he had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital.
"I was completely paralyzed. I could not move. Nothing. The only thing I could do was blink my eyes. I couldn't speak. I couldn't move anything," he said.
Gerry suffers from asthma so doctors put him on a ventilator but his health only got worse.
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Tracy said on April 5, she got a call from doctors saying Gerry's blood pressure and heart rate were dangerously low and that he was near death.
"So they asked me, 'do you want to give your husband comfort care and wait and see what happens?' I told them no because I knew God was going to help him recover," she said.
For weeks, Gerry was in a coma, and during that time he missed his wedding anniversary, some of his kids' birthdays, and sadly his mother's death.
Tracy said she died from coronavirus complications.
"When he came out of his coma, that was one of the first things he was asking about, was how his mom was. It broke my heart having to tell him on FaceTime, not in-person, that his mom passed away," Tracy said.
As months went by, miraculously Gerry finally started getting better, and began intensive rehab that he will have to continue for weeks.
"The only thing I can't move are my hands and my feet but I'm healthy enough to come home and here I am," he said.
He said he is so grateful to return home to his four kids, and so thankful to have a wife who never gave up on him.
"She's the best wife in the world. She's the best thing to ever happen to me. Without her I wouldn't be here," he said.
