Stories of resilience: The survivors of COVID-19
The coronavirus pandemic stopped the world in its tracks a year ago. Globally, more than 2 million people have died from complications related to the virus and more than 95 million people have been infected.
Amongst the tragedy are stories of people who defied the odds — surviving lengthy hospital stays and fighting the virus despite age or other medical conditions.
Here are a few of their stories:
Kasen Donerlson
A Syracuse, New York, baby spent much of 2020 in the hospital fighting two health battles, and not winning.
Kasen Donerlson was already fighting liver disease when he received a diagnosis for COVID-19.
Kasen's mom, Mitayah Donerlson, traveled across state lines and eventually relocated to a place near the hospital to aid her baby boy in his health journey.
During that experience, in those precious memory-making moments at home, she discovered Kasen loves ice pops and learning. She had those moments in between their many hospital visits.
"Maybe like once a month, sometimes twice a month,” said Kasen’s mom, Mitayah Donerlson, told.
At just 2 months old, Kasen developed a rare liver disease called biliary atresia. He would need a liver transplant.
"When his liver began to decline, we had to kind of like push up the stakes,” said Mitayah.
Mitayah decided a hospital in Pittsburgh, was the best option for Kasen's procedure. But between her back-and-forth visits to the hospital and waiting for word on a donor, she wound up back in New York after Kasen developed a fever. Kasen tested positive for COVID-19.
"I didn't think he was going to make it. I didn't think he was going to suppress the COVID," said Mitayah.
After four days in the hospital, Kasen pulled through.
"He always seems to wow his doctors. He is a blessing. He is a blessing, and he is a miracle,” said Mitayah.
Just two weeks later in December brought another miracle. Kasen had a liver donor.
"My heart was so overjoyed that, that's all I could do was cry,” said Mitayah.
Kasen got the procedure in January and his mom says he's in good spirits.
Watch the video above to learn more about Kasen's story.
Jennifer Carmen
After nearly two weeks in the hospital, Jennifer Carmen describes the moment she could leave after coping with COVID-19 as surreal.
“I cried the whole way out because I was just overwhelmed by being able to leave the hospital and go see my babies again,” she said.
Carmen, a registered nurse at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, went through a lot in about a month. Her mother got COVID-19 in December and died after being hospitalized.
“I dropped my mom off in that emergency room, and that was the last walk I had with her. I sat her in that chair and never saw her awake again,” Carmen said.
But after their final goodbyes, Carmen learned she also had the virus.
“My sister and my dad both had COVID at that time,” she said. “We contracted COVID from each other, saying goodbye to mom.”
Carmen said she was hospitalized on New Year’s Eve and spent eight days in the ICU.
“I think the worst part of all this COVID is the isolation because you can’t stay with your family,” she said.
Carmen told sister station KOCO that thanks to the care from the hospital staff, she was able to get through those tough days.
Her condition improved enough to be released this week, and she’s now at home and on oxygen until she can breathe on her own.
But Carmen said even after all that’s happened, she doesn’t regret her decision to say goodbye to her mom.
“We knew there was no way she could survive,” Carmen said. “I would never, never take that moment back with my mom in saying goodbye. I’m just blessed to be sitting here and I can hug my babies. And I got to come home, and I beat it and I did it for mom.”
Michelle Sogge
When Michelle Sogge contracted COVID-19 last June, the symptoms were attention-grabbing.
“I was in bed, just about to fall asleep, and my arm just started to kind of go numb. And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’ And then my heart started racing and I suddenly couldn’t get air in,” she recounted.
Sogge, 25, a lover of running, hiking and the outdoors in general, considered herself healthy. She felt alarmed.
“Having that sudden sensation of my heart being out of whack and knowing that something was wrong was really frightening,” said Sogge, who works for the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Sogge went to the ER, thinking maybe she was having a heart attack. At the time, Arizona was seeing what were then .
It wasn’t a heart attack. She said doctors told her they suspected a panic attack and sent her home. The symptoms, however, didn’t subside, so she went back and got a COVID-19 test. A few days later she learned she had tested positive for the virus.
Sogge, who is still feeling debilitating effects from COVID-19, is part of a group of people called “long-haulers” — people whose side effects from COVID-19 persist and can make everyday tasks a grueling challenge. , researchers estimate that roughly 10% of coronavirus patients become long-haulers.
Sogge eventually went to California with her dad to seek care once living alone was no longer possible. (In some of her most dire moments, Sogge said she was so weak she was having to crawl across her floor to answer the door.) Once in the Sacramento area, she was referred to a still-forming UC Davis Health clinic created to help and learn about people like her.
For Sogge, her main long-term symptoms have been trouble breathing and chest pain, along with fatigue and not being able to think clearly.
“I’m still limited in 90% of the things that I would have been able to do before I got COVID. I would love to be able to go outside and take a walk around my house. I definitely know I can’t do that today,” she said.
Sogge isn’t sure how she contracted the virus. The only memory that sticks out in her mind is going to a gas station and encountering someone who wasn’t wearing a mask.
She said she hopes sharing her story motivates people to listen to science when it comes to wearing facial coverings and social distancing. She also hopes she helps others become more aware of the potential long-term effects of the virus that don’t result in death.
“It’s not a dual choice of being alive and being healthy or being dead from COVID. That’s not what we’re talking about here," she said. "We’re talking about all that messy stuff in between that long-haulers are facing, where, yes, your life may not be over but it may be changed in ways that are difficult to imagine and absolutely haunting to experience.”
Faye Jones
Faye Jones' niece found her unresponsive in her home back in August. The family described the following months as a roller coaster of complications.
The mother from Forestdale, Alabama, celebrated a joyful homecoming after a 90-day battle with the coronavirus.
She and her family now have a strong message for everyone.
"This is not a joke. This is for real. Take it seriously. It can happen to anybody," Jones said.
Carmen Lerma
Carmen Lerma was never so happy to wake up in a hospital bed. The cords, the bruises, the pain were all signs.
She survived.
"It was like a relief, but it was more of a relief when they took the tubes out of my mouth and I was able to take that deep breath by myself," Lerma said. "You know and that was also priceless."
In October, at a hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, Lerma became the recipient of two new lungs.
Coronavirus took its toll on Lerma's original pair.
Her battle started in July when she spent 45 days on a ventilator in the ICU at Ascension St. Francis Hospital in Milwaukee.
Lerma described nothing short of a miracle in getting the transplant days after getting on the list.
"These doctors gave me life back. The donor family gave me life back so the least I can do is fight."
Shanderick Dorsey
Shanderick Dorsey, a teenager from North Carolina, beat COVID-19 after spending 95 days in the hospital.
Dorsey said his health journey started in April when he "started coughing up large amounts of blood." He later found out he was having a heart attack and had double pneumonia. This turned into a months-long stay at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, including being in a months-long coma.
Dorsey said he didn't know about his positive COVID-19 diagnosis until after he woke up from his coma. He was discharged from the hospital in July.
Dorsey, 19, credits his mom and prayer for his survival.
As he recovers, Dorsey said he was thankful to be home for the holidays, even if they looked different this year.
Arthur Sanchez
Arthur Sanchez took a deep breath and told his story. The amazing part is that he's able to breathe and talk at all.
"I'm a fighter and I'm a strong believer in faith: I think I'm a walking miracle," Sanchez said.
He said this spring, multiple family members contracted COVID-19. Sanchez said at first, he didn't take it seriously.
"Like any other virus it's going to go away and I was a healthy individual other than being a little overweight and having mild high blood pressure," he said.
Then Sanchez got it. He went to University of New Mexico Hospital to fight it and spent months in the hospital.
Then he went to Arizona where he received a double lung transplant. Sanchez survived. His brother-in-law did not.
Sanchez, 52, said he wanted to share his story to thank all the medical workers who saved his life, and to let the community know how deadly the virus can be.
Darell Slater
A Kansas man beat the odds when he went home in November after 118 days in the hospital.
Darell Slater fought complications from COVID-19 since July.
With signs in hand, family members anxiously awaited a moment they had worried might never come.
"There were times, yeah absolutely, we didn't know that we would be here," said Kim Cochran, Slater's daughter.
Slater, 71, was diagnosed with COVID-19 in July and was then in the fight of his life.
He was on a ventilator for 96 days and given a 5% chance of survival.
"They said he just wasn't turning the corner. He wasn't getting better," Cochran said. "At one point, they kind of faced us with the decision of having to turn off all the life support."
Amazingly, he defied the odds and began to recover. Slater spent two weeks at MidAmerica Rehabilitation Hospital before the moment his family calls a miracle: when the doors opened and he was wheeled out to cheers and applause from loved ones and staff.
"Getting him home after 118 days when we never thought we would see this has just been very emotional," Cochran said.
Slater's family hopes his story sends a message to others still fighting.
"Never give up hope and keep the faith," Cochran said. "Anything is possible and he's living proof."
Carlos Muniz
Carlos Muniz was hospitalized for COVID-19 the same week he was supposed to get married.
For nearly a month, he was at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio and had a few close calls during his battle with the virus. His lungs collapsed twice and he was eventually placed on a life-saving machine.
When hospital workers heard about Muniz's engagement, they decided to plan a ceremony for Muniz and his fiancée, Grace Leimann.
"We were trying to be creative to to get people and bring some life back into people and help them continue to fight through what is one of the worst hospitalizations I've ever seen," Matt Holdridge a registered nurse at Methodist Hospital told .
In August, immediate family and hospital staff members attended the big day. Hospital staff helped Muniz leave his room without disconnecting from his life-saving treatment machine.
"It was a beautiful moment. And all I could see was him as I was walking down the aisle," Leimann said. "It was a very great, great moment for me that I will treasure in my memory forever."
Ron Cruise
Ron Cruise — who has been hit by one health battle after another, including COVID-19 — was determined to watch his only daughter walk down the aisle.
Cruise, 67, suffered two strokes earlier this year, leaving him with little strength in his right side. He was then diagnosed with COVID-19 in June.
“We done a test and it came back positive,” Cruise said. “That’s when we went to the hospital. Don’t remember much after that.”
Cruise spent two weeks on a ventilator and went to Tulsa for treatment. He said his time spent in isolation was very lonely.
“It was terrible not being there,” his wife, Karen, said.
But Cruise was determined to fight so he could be there for his daughter’s wedding day.
And that day was capped off with a very special father-daughter dance to “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” a song that captured Cruise’s journey to be there.
“It was great. My only daughter, and it was … it was good to be able to walk her down the aisle,” Cruise said.
Steve and Marie Orlando
In October, a Pittsburgh-area couple not only celebrated recovering from COVID-19, but a milestone in their marriage.
Steve Orlando, 92, and his wife, Marie, 89, have been through a lot and credit their large family for getting them through it.
What the couple went through, besides raising six kids, giving them 15 grandchildren who then gave them 20 great-grandchildren, was COVID-19. Marie was hospitalized over the summer for a valve replacement and when she returned home she lost her appetite, and so did Steve.
"I knew I had it," she said. "I figured because I couldn't eat. I knew one of us had to eat and drink and he wouldn't do anything, so that God forbid I could take care of him, if something would happen to him. But I ate. Not because I wanted to, but I just did it."
Steve became dehydrated and ended up in the hospital for two days. The couple's daughter who lives in Florida came home to help while Marie recovered at home. Both pulled through.
"We both went through it though," they said. "We were very lucky."
Lucky to fight COVID-19 and survive, and lucky in love. The pair married when Marie was 19 years old and Steve was 22. On Sept. 2, they celebrated 70 years of marriage.
"We've had a wonderful life," said Marie. "With our kids, and our grandchildren and now the great grandchildren. It's just, we've had a lovely, wonderful family."
Marie Jean-Pierre
Marie Delus had not touched her mother since she took her to a New York City emergency room in March.
But after more than five months in a hospital and nursing home, Delus' mother, Marie Jean-Pierre, was released on Aug. 31.
Jean-Pierre, 73, was admitted to Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn on March 21 with a low-grade fever and difficulty breathing. After testing positive for coronavirus, she was intubated and later placed on a ventilator, according to her daughter. At some point, she received a tracheotomy.
"She was fighting every step of the way. She was fighting the doctors, she was fighting the nurses," Marie Delus said. "She didn't want to be on the ventilator."
Jean-Pierre, Delus and other family members had traveled to Spain in early March on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, returning on March 11. Multiple people who went on the trip became ill with five becoming "very sick," Delus said.
Jean-Pierre was "out of it," remembering little of almost three months in the hospital, she said. She was transferred to Brooklyn's Saints Joachim and Anne Nursing and Rehab Center, where she had to relearn how to walk and talk, and was unable to see her family, except from behind glass, Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre immigrated from Haiti as a teenager in 1964. She has six children, 11 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren, and became a citizen in 2018, voting in her first election that year, Delus said.
Marilyn Newton
A Louisville woman who contracted COVID-19 left the hospital after more than 100 days of treatment.
In early August, 61-year-old Marilyn Newton left Baptist Health in Louisville, Kentucky, a place she was admitted to back on April 20.
"It's been a long time coming, something we've been waiting for for the longest time," said Amber Newton, Marilyn's daughter.
It was not a guarantee that Marilyn Newton would be able to leave the hospital.
"We were told at one point she wasn't going to make it," said Amber Newton. "And then to see her come out of those doors, with a smile on her face, and hugging her grandchildren, and her children, it's an indescribable feeling."
After Marilyn Newton was admitted to Baptist Health in April, she was put on a ventilator. She would get off the ventilator in June, before she was moved to Kindred Hospital. She returned to Baptist Health July 7 for acute rehab.
"It has definitely been a roller coaster ride that we have wanted to get off of," said Amber Newton.
There were a lot of ups and downs during her COVID-19 fight, leading to her nickname of "Miracle Marilyn."
"It makes me feel so good to see that people get better and can get through these things," said Newton's nurse, Brooke McCutcheon. "And they are miracles and it's just awesome."
CNN contributed to this report.