Avery Garcia said he caught coronavirus in the back of an ambulance as he worked to rescue other COVID-19 patients in March 2020.
Garcia was hospitalized at the beginning of the pandemic, including being unconscious on a ventilator. He returned to the hospital to get married outside the intensive care unit at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.
Garcia was one of the first people in Metro Detroit to contract COVID-19. He said he struggles when he sees and hears of people who still choose to deny the seriousness of coronavirus.
“Why is it even a question. Should you help people? Or should you go out of your way to make sure they’re safe? And that should never be a question. That should be automatic,” Garcia said. “We have to take care of each other. We don’t have anything else.”
Still, a year later, he’s incredibly hopeful. He’s anxiously waiting for the buds to return to the trees because he missed last spring. He’s looking forward to the day he can climb down the stairs without gasping for air.
He is hopeful that one day he will return to saving lives, instead of continuing to fight for his own.
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