Hello everyone,

Welcome to the story of a true life miracle, Marisol Salinas. The single-mother of 5 children (20, 16, 14, 10, 9), at the age of 41, Marisol contracted the Covid-19 virus from her son (who was isolated in his bedroom) in late March. With an already pre-existing condition of diabetes, Marisol's battle with Covid-19 was tough as all her symptoms were heightened and lasted longer. By the middle of April, she was feeling a little better, but still had a lingering cough and shortness of breath.

Throughout the middle of April 2021, Marisol struggled with this cough and shortness of breath that kept getting worse and worse. She was driven to both local hospital emergency rooms in Kalamazoo, MI where she was told she was dehydrated, put on an IV, and when done, prescribed medication to subdue the cough and sent home.

The morning of April 20, 2021, Marisol found herself really exhausted and still with difficulty breathing. She reached out to her boss to share that she felt she just really needed a day off to rest. However early morning, on Wednesday, April 21, Marisol herself called an ambulance as she was really struggling to breathe (she does not remember this or the rest of this story). She was immediately taken to the ER at Borgess Hospital where they did a CT scan of her chest and found both her lungs FILLED with blood clots.

The heart surgeon in charge called the family and shared that they needed permission to immediately perform a procedure to remove all those blood clots. It was the only way for her to be able to breathe normally again. A couple of hours into starting the procedure, the family received a call from the attending nurse to immediately get to Borgess. While Marisol was having the procedure done, she went into cardiac arrest and her heart completely stopped. A medical team of about 20 people were in there giving manual chest compressions while the surgeon continued to remove blood clots, and they connected her onto an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). The ECMO machine is similar to the heart-lung by-pass machine used in open-heart surgery. It pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest.

As the family arrived and waited with the hospital clergy for hours, the heart surgeon finally came in to update them. "How long has this been going on??? She should have been here at least a week ago. Her heart has basically been working overtime for many days and honestly, we did everything we could, but we're not sure how this will end. That ECMO machine is only utilized apparently for a maximum of 7 days. If there is no progress, there's no more anyone can do. The next 24-48 hours are critical. Her heart needs to start back up. We also need to do a CT scan of her brain to see if all those manual chest compressions cause any bleeding in the brain. This is really serious stuff and honestly, I have no idea how this will end for your sister".

Their hearts sank. Marisol's mother was inconsolable. They prayed hard and asked family and friends to do the same. The next morning, they received a call from the heart surgeon. "Good news, her heart started up. But it's VERY WEAK. We don't have the resources here to continue treating her. We need to fly her to Spectrum in Grand Rapids TODAY. If she has any chance of survival and continued improvement, it will be there." So, to Spectrum Health Meijer Heart Center she went.

Upon arrival, the family received a flurry of phone calls from nurses, doctors, etc. All of them confirming the severity of the situation. They reminded us that ECMO machine is only meant for 7 days maximum. All of them spoke with a somber tone as if they'd seen this before (which they had..until Marisol).

Slowly, daily, Marisol recovered. Eventually they took her off ECMO as her heart regained it's strength. After getting through some challenges, they again did the necessary procedure to remove more blood clots from her lungs, this time, very successfully. Enough to where they could take the breathing tubes out of her mouth. Dr. Amelia called and spoke to the family to share the progress one day. Her comments were, "I don't think you fully understand. As a medical team that has seen other patients that severe, Marisol is literally our miracle patient. Honestly, we needed her as much as she needed our care."

Daily Marisol improved and started eating solid meals. Constant medications, dialysis to help the kidneys as they were partially shut down, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, etc. They did absolutely everything possible and NO ONE could fathom her fast recovery. All over the world, people prayed for Marisol's recovery and survival so she could return to her kids. I'm happy to report that after being discharged from Spectrum, and about two weeks of intensive rehabilitation at Mary Free Bed Hospital, Marisol is now back home with her kids in Kalamazoo!

Here's the need. Marisol was out of work that entire time. She was told she unfortunately did not qualify for FMLA to protect her job. Her family submitted for unemployment (because her job loss was due to Covid-19), and they DENIED her claim because she missed reporting a couple of weeks (while she was in the hospital unconscious). The family tried to work with the Michigan Unemployment Agency, but even with a signed Power of Attorney, they would not talk to them, wouldn't provide online access info, and once they did, put barrier after barrier, questionnaire after questionnaire, and even had the family initially file incorrectly.

Marisol is now working with local agencies to seek financial support for rent, and such, however we all know how long some of these processes take, and there is no knowledge of how much they'll even be able to support with. Again, Marisol is the single-parent to 5 (4 still living with her) kids, and while the bills keep piling up, there has been, and will continue to be no income for her for the near future (doctors have said absolutely no work until a full recovery is made). Marisol is currently using a walker, has nerve damage, and has a very long road ahead of recovery. Not to mention, they have NO CLUE what any medical bills she may receive in the near future.

If there were ever a time to help someone, this is it. Marisol survived Covid-19, but will require continued recovery time. If you cannot support financially, we ask that you please SHARE THIS story. Know that God hears us. Know that he's with you always. He's visible in #MiracleMarisol.