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Maryland Man Who Survived Severe Complications From COVID-19 Being Called A 'Miracle' By Doctors

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A Maryland man who spent nearly 30 days in the ICU as a result of COVID-19 is now home recovering.

Kevin Swink spent 18 days on a ventilator at Franklin Square. His team said his heart nearly stopped.

"It hurt to take even one breath," Swink said. "And I did actually at one time just want to die. But then I heard a voice in my head that said you're being selfish."

CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

"I used to tell him 'Don't give up.' I don't know if he heard it, and I would like to know if he heard me saying that to him," David Goldsborough, a respiratory therapist at Franklin Square, said.

Swink said he does remember specifically a nurse named Beth who was with him on his worst day.

"When I saw him on the day that he left the hospital, I told him he almost died, and I thought he was going to die, and I just am so thankful that he didn't," Beth Gelson, a nurse at Franklin Square, said.

Swink said he doesn't know how he got the illness. His father tested positive for COVID-19 and recently died as a result of the virus. Other family members tested positive too, but were barely affected.

"I'm a miracle," Swink said. "A lot of people in the hospital call me medical miracle."

For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Department's website or call 211. You can find all of WJZ's coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.

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