After a 10-month long battle with the virus, a Richardson man is finally home with a renewed appreciation for life.
"I've always been a runner and for the last eight years I've done triathlons," he said.
"The first few days weren't too bad, but then I ended up in the ER and it was pretty strong thereafter," he said. He had to go from Richardson Methodist Hospital where he was on a ventilator to Baylor Heart Hospital where he was put on an ECMO machine - which acts as heart and a lung by taking carbon dioxide-filled blood out of the body and pumping oxygen-filled blood back in - while in a medically induced coma.
But Hollen continued to fight and was able to eventually move into a long-term acute care facility and then a rehab facility before finally being cleared to go home. "What I say is God didn't have any quit in him because without God none of this would be possible," Dee said.