A 15-year-old teenager from Florida, USA, who spent 11 days on a ventilator after getting the coronavirus is now urging people to get vaccinated.
Paulina Velasquez, a high-school sophomore, caught the virus earlier this year.
She is from Coral Springs, Florida, USA.
The teen tested positive for coronavirus on July 11, 2021 after she lost her taste and smell.
She also had flu-like symptoms.
In just 7 days, the girl was hospitalized at the Broward Health Medical Center and her condition started to deteriorate.
She ended up needing a ventilator.
Agnes Velasquez, the mother of the teenager, said that the incident was the scariest moment of her life.
She added:
That was the scariest moment when they told me because I didn’t know what to expect.
The 15-year-old girl had a severe pneumonia, which required the critical treatment.
The good thing is that the teenager recovered.
Dr. Venu Devabhaktuni said:
Things could have gone bad quickly, but she recovered because she’s one young, healthy child. That, I think that was in favor of her recovering.
Talking about her current condition, the teenager said that she still feels weak.
She is also going through physical therapy to regain her strength.
Right now, Paulina is urging everyone to get the vaccine, especially kids, considering that there has been a recent surge of children getting hospitalized after getting the virus.
According to a data that was recently released by the American Academy of Pediatrics, around 20,000 minors are being hospitalized each week.
The thing is, children are “generally” safe from the virus and they are less likely to die or suffer a severe pneumonia, however, they are not immune.
Talking about the virus, Paulina said:
My message, technically is: If you’re eligible to get the vaccine, please do. I plan on getting vaccinated as soon as my doctor lets us know when I can. It is a very serious virus. This virus does not pick and choose who to infect. It could hit you as hard as it hit me. And I don’t want anybody to go through what I went through.
The virus is real and we should get vaccinated!
