COVID survivor reunited with lifesaving Memorial Hospital team
MIAMI--They call her the medical unicorn.
"I will forever be grateful for these men and women and everything they've done for me. Because without them, I wouldn't be here," said Melissa Stagg.
Melissa Stagg was reunited with the medical team Wednesday that saved her life after a case of COVID-19 that severely impacted her heart and lungs.
"It wasn't an easy journey, brain bleeds and blood clots and kidney failures you name it. I had it," said Stagg.
She needed an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine, which replaces the functions of the heart and lungs of critically ill patients.
Something the facility she was at didn't have.
Luckily memorial healthcare system was able to send a team and save her life…the first of its kind in Florida.
"We have the first mobile ECMO program here in South Florida," Dr. Wong at Memorial Healthcare Systems
"If I could scream it from the rooftop that every hospital needs this solution if you're unstable enough to be transported to hospital by helicopter or ambulance," said Stagg.
She's now back on her feet, living life as she normally did before.
Overcoming it all, after she was kept on the machine for 65 days after significant complications during her 5-month hospitalization.
"4.5 months and having a single-digit percent chance of living and I made it. I get to see my son graduate high school this year my daughter graduate college next year."
