A woman who survived a case of COVID-19 says she is grateful for her life on Easter and is sharing her story about how beat the virus and overcame a terrifying experience.
Reea Rodney is a 40-year-old mother who was in an intensive care bed for nearly 10 days at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.
She says after an initial chest scan, an ER doctor made a baffling remark.
"He said, 'Well, it appears as if you have lung cancer.’ So now I am struggling to breathe, I feel already like I am dying, and then I was literally just given a death sentence,” she says.
Rodney says her diagnosis quickly changed, testing positive for COVID-19. Her lung images were indicative of an infection.
She was treated with hydroxychloroquine -- an anti-malaria drug President Donald Trump has pushed as a potential miracle worker -- paired with the antibiotic azithromycin.
Rodney says within two days, she noticed a change.
“I felt like my lungs had expanded and that elephant sitting on my chest finally eased up a bit...I felt like I’m going to live,” she says.
The FDA has only approved emergency use of hydroxychloroquine to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients who cannot be part of a clinical trial.
However, the drug's effectiveness is still being tested, with some data linking it to heart incidents, according to published reports.
Rodney was treated with it for six days before being discharged from the hospital.
undefined