Miami-Dade Police Officer Frank Sangineto Overcomes COVID Complications, Including 3-Month Coma
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A miracle is what family and friends are calling it Tuesday, as a Miami-Dade police officer is going home after surviving a double lung and kidney transplant from complications due to COVID.
"I'm overjoyed, I overcame this and I'm coming home," said officer Frank Sangineto.
After nearly 3 months in a coma, officer Sangineto is going home. Something he has been waiting for, for quite some time.
"A lot of mental challenges. You know you're stuck in a hospital 24/7. You know when I woke up from the coma I couldn't move," said Sangineto.
In August 2021, his condition got worse, and the ventilator support was not enough to keep him breathing.
Doctors knew there was only one option.
"We know the odds of the lungs recovering are essentially gone, so that's when lung transplantation is considered the only possibility to get the patient alive out of the hospital."
"Without a transplant, that patient is essentially bound to a life support machine," said Doctor Tiago Machuca, MD, University of Miami Health Systems professor of surgery and director of the Lung Center at the Miami Transplant Institute.
Sangineto, a K-9 officer, was a former Marine.
Dr. Machuca said he felt confident taking this on knowing how mentally strong he was.
"Every single lung transplant center in the country would decline a patient like this," said Dr. Machuca.
Sangineto said it was difficult but his drive to live, his family and his brotherhood of police officers helped get him home.
"It's a mental battle also, it's not just physical," said Sangineto.
"He inspired us, I always tell you, you're built different. From the moment he woke up his ambition of life, his family, his mom. They inspired us, they gave us light when we didn't have it," said Lourdes Diaz, a nurse that worked with Sangineto.
As for what's next, he says once he's healthy he wants to get back to the force, his true passion.
His cousin, Rene Garcia said it's truly a miracle to have him home.
His eyes were closed for four weeks straight, and the family had two separate conversations about letting him go, and Tuesday he slept in his own bed.