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72-year-old lung cancer survivor beats COVID-19 after three weeks in hospital

Carl Schuck was on a ventilator for two weeks and called his recovery an Easter miracle.

Laura Schuck waited outside Baptist South Friday afternoon for her husband. He was set to be released after nearly a month stay at the hospital.

It had been three weeks since Laura saw her husband, Carl Schuck; three weeks since he was diagnosed with COVID-19. Minutes later came the moment both Laura and Carl Schuck weren’t sure would come. Carl Schuck, 72-years-old, was wheeled out of the hospital a COVID-19 survivor. Laura Schuck and the health care workers nearby started cheering.

“Wait! I have to get a picture,” Laura Schuck said.

“Oh, I wish I could hug you,” she told Carl Schuck.

Carl Schuck spent 15 days on a ventilator and a total of 21 days in the hospital.

“You’ve got to believe in the power of prayer. My wife started a prayer chain and it went coast to coast, Carl Schuck said.

“That’s all I can say, is when everything was against me, with my age, health status, I pulled a miracle, truly,” he said.

Doctors used hydroxychloroquine, zinc and zithromycin to help him fight the virus, but Carl Schuck is used to fighting. He beat lung cancer, another deadly disease, just a few years ago.

“I think I’ll remember this day as how warm and caring on the way down and by the elevators … they [doctors and nurses] had a whole line of staff that were cheering,” Carl Schuck said. “They made this sign for me. It’s just such an overwhelmingly warm engulfing feeling."

“This hospital is amazing. They moved mountains to get me what I needed. God bless you all,” he said.

“We’ll continue to pray for them [the health care workers],” Laura Schuck said.

Carl Schuck warns everyone to continue to follow the recommendations and advice from health care workers, like social distancing and washing your hands.

“It’s [Coronavirus] a tough booger to overcome. Do what you’re supposed to do. Observe social distancing. Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash everything around you and do it all again,” he said.

As Carl Schuck got in the car to head home, a place so many of us are right now, he said he knows what he’ll do when he gets there.

“I’ll probably illegally sneak a hug from my wife,” he said.

“I don’t know about that,” Laura Schuck joked.

“From six feet away. I have long arms,” Carl  Schuck said.

Grateful, Carl and Laura Schuck said, for another chance at life.

“It’s a miracle. You have no idea how close he was,” Laura Schuck said.

“And it’s on this Good Friday of Holy Week,” Carl Schuck said.

“He’s our Easter miracle,” Laura Schuck said.

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