SAN ANTONIO — Joe Doria spent nearly three weeks in the hospital. For almost half of that time, he was on a ventilator. Then, the 56-year-old, who could have lost his life after being diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, was released Wednesday.
Before he was initially admitted, Doria remembers calling his family.
"They gave you three minutes to say goodbye," he said.
His wife Helen, won't forget that phone call with her husband.
"'I going to let you know that I am going on a ventilator and I may have to say goodbye,'" she recalls her husband telling her on the phone. "I said, 'You are not going to say goodbye. You are not going to say goodbye. We are going to pray for you, and you are going to come home.'"
Joe said he was at Methodist Hospital Metropolitan for 20 days, 12 of which were spent on a ventilator.
"I was fighting the process so bad that every time I closed my eyes I thought someone was sticking a pipe down my throat.," he said.
His wife and two boys were not able to see the rock of their family, which made an anxious situation even scarier.
"I am not afraid to die," Joe remembered thinking. "I just don't want to die without my wife or my children around me, or someone holding my hand telling me that they loved me."
Helen would call twice a day to check in on her husband of more than 20 years.
"One doctor said it well: Dealing with this disease is like building an airplane while flying it," she said.
He was fighting a virus in a battle with numerous unknowns. All the while, he said, the staff at the hospital was transparent.
"One doctor came in and said, 'You are not going to die,'" Joe said. "'You are not going to die on my shift. We are going to keep you alive.'"
On Wednesday arrived a moment he had been waiting for, when he got to hug his wife and two older boys. The 56-year-old left the hospital and was greeted by his loved ones.
"I got to survive," he said. "And I don't know why. I thank God—I am a survivor."
He not only credits medical staff, but the power of prayer. The father also thinks about those who didn't get to walk out those hospital doors.
"It is unfortunate," he said. "It not fair. I am always going to live with the guilt of why me and why did I get to go out."
Joe is the second person in San Antonio to receive a plasma donation from another survivor of the virus. Researchers are investigating whether plasma from someone who's beaten the virus can provide immunity to someone currently sick.
For now, he says his two favorite words are "thank you." And he especially wants to exchange them with his plasma donor.
"You saved my life," he said. "You saved my family. I know that you did it with no purpose other than to save a life. Buddy, if you are out there, or young lady, if you are out, there I owe you a cold beer."
Joe said he wants to live life by giving back and paying it forward. He wants to host a plasma and blood drive in the fall with his Central Catholic family. He said he doesn't want anyone else to struggle on finding a donor.
At Thursday's briefing, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said three people have beaten the virus after receiving plasma.