After 549 days in 9 hospitals and facilities with COVID-19, this man is finally home
CTV
In the last year and a half, Donnell Hunter has missed his daughter's first day of kindergarten, his son's standout season of youth football, the birth of his grandson and countless other memories, all because of his long battle against COVID-19.
The 43-year-old spent 549 days in hospitals and long-term acute care facilities after falling ill with COVID-19 in September 2020, well before vaccines were available, his family said. He finally made it home to Roswell, New Mexico, on Friday.
"I don't take anything for granted, that's for sure. I went 550 days without seeing my kids, I have a grandson that I hadn't met and that is the big thing," Donnell told CNN on Monday.
"I love my family, my kids and my wife more than I love myself. So when I would fight, I would fight for them," the father of seven said.
Donnell is one of the 4.5 million Americans who have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started tracking hospitalizations in August 2020. His story is unusual. The average length of hospital stay for adults was 5.5 days during Omicron, compared to 8 days last winter and 7.6 days during Delta, according to the CDC.
