Friday, July 3rd I got a phone call saying that my mom had been rushed to the hospital because she was having breathing complications due to, what we thought, was just a severe sinus infection. See the prior week my mom had seen a doctor about a fever and they concluded that it was not COVID related and that she just had a severe sinus infection, which we believed because my mother suffers from sinusitis and she regularly gets mild sinus infections. A week later, after getting tested, she comes back positive for COVID-19. She's soon admitted to the hospital because she'd been coughing so much that she couldn't get a full breath in.  Turns out that on top of just COVID, my mom also had pneumonia induced by COVID. Flash forward to this passed week, my mom's condition worsened to the point where she had to be put in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator. Once on the ventilator, her oxygen levels stabilized.  Sunday I get a phone call letting me know that my mom's oxygen levels were depleting while her carbon dioxide levels were increasing and that she was developing blood clots. The treatment for this was to be put on ECMO (which, in short, acts as the lungs to bring in oxygen and push out carbon dioxide in the blood) and more blood thinners. ECMO is a very costly treatment and my mom was not on any insurance plan as she is currently out of a job due to the pandemic. I know in a time like this we aren't all able to give and I understand. Just know that whatever you can give, is extremely appreciated.

My mom's name is Ana, and I would like to tell you that she is a mother of 7 (3 biological and 4 stepchildren) but anyone who's ever met my mom knows that she takes care of anyone who needs it (and those who don't) so I can't give you an exact number. My mom's life hasn't always been the easiest, but she's never let that get in the way of her achieving her goals or her happiness. We moved here, to the US, 19 years ago and she left behind the life she'd built in Venezuela. any credentials she had no longer mattered here. My mom still made it happen, she did what she could to afford the things we needed. She ended up going back to school a few years ago to get her bachelor's here in the US and was planning on going back to school, once again, to become a nurse.  My mom is, in every sense of the word, a fighter. She's pushed and fought her entire life and she's doing so right now FOR her life. She's a stubborn woman (just in case you guys wanted to know where I get it from) and I know, with my whole heart, that she will get out of this.