Judith Hunt, 80, went to the hospital on January 31st this year after falling and breaking a femur and hip.
Hunt and her doctors said in a CNN report that the 80-year-old left Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital in early July, after battling an aneurysm, sepsis, abdominal and heart surgeries and Covid-19.
“It was hysterically funny, in a way,” Hunt said. “It was like every time I turned around, something new came up. That’s why I started laughing at it. Because it was like, when do we get leprosy? When is the rain of frogs?”
Dr. Gabriele DiLuozzo, director of aortic surgery for the hospital said that Hunt tested positive for the coronavirus in March, and at one point, she was intubated and put on a respirator. She was also initially given doses of hydroxychloroquine, which worsened her heart condition and led to a heart attack.
After “enormous collaboration” between multiple teams of physicians, physical therapists, and other health care workers, Hunt was able to walk out of the hospital on her own. But, Dr. DiLuozzo credits her “remarkable recovery” at least in part to her spirit and attitude toward life.
“I spoke with the nurses,” Dr. DiLuozzo said. “I said if there was a way I could extract her genes, I would try somehow to put them in my bloodstream because this woman is indestructible.”
Hunt said she realized early on that her chances were “not good,” and decided to accept her possible death with her invincible sense of humor.
“Hell, at one point I died for two minutes,” she said. “And did I get the white light? No. It’s like getting your tonsils out, and no ice cream or jello.”
Hunt can talk at for hours about the “magnificent” doctors, nurses, aides, and room cleaners who took care of her.
“They gave me such hope for the human race that people like them existed,” Hunt said.
Dr. Malcolm Reid, chair of rehabilitation at Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, oversaw her physical recovery.
“Many patients just wouldn’t have had the mental fortitude to stay the course,” Dr. Reid said. “Just to be in the hospital that long is draining.”
This August, Hunt and two friends will be renting a room on Long Island’s East Hampton.
“I have no idea what’s next,” Hunt said. “All I know is there’s a next.”