A Bronx man spent more than 50 days in the intensive care unit battling the coronavirus at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore last year. Now, he’s sharing his survival story. 

During the third week of March 2020, 29-year-old Jonathan Delemos says he started to feel his first symptoms. He says he had a fever that took five days to subside and then started having trouble breathing. 

“At this point I'm really nervous because I haven't felt that sensation ever,” said Delemos. 

After two days in the emergency room, he says he was one of the first adults admitted to the pediatric ICU with COVID-19. 

“Very quickly within the first 12-18 hours of being in the ICU he just worsened and required to be put on a ventilator, intubated,” said Dr. Henry Ushay.

The virus had Delemos intubated for nearly a month.

“When you're in that coma you have no idea, what's going on the other side...it devastated my parents and my wife,” said Delemos. 

Dr. Ushay and his team at Montefiore’s Pediatric ICU did a tracheostomy. This procedure consists of making an incision in the neck to place a tube in his windpipe to continue helping with breathing, but also allows him to wake up and move around after being intubated. 

He says this was a dark time for him. “The most difficult moment in my life, just making it over to the other side and seeing family, you, you can't put a price tag on that,” said Delemos. 

Delemos was discharged on May 18. 

“It was just, just incredible there was not, everyone had tears in their eyes that day,” said Dr. Ushay. 

Over the summer, Delemos was able to celebrate his 30th birthday and go back to visit the hospital.