A front-line worker is now back on the job after battling back from a long bout with COVID-19.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Maria Rosero treated suspected COVID-19 patients in Mercy Medical Center's emergency room. She was always careful, but eventually, things didn't feel fight.

"One night I woke up, it was the end of March, March 25, where I had shaking chills and a fever. And I knew what it was," says Rosero.

As one of the first physicians at Mercy to test positive, she immediately got treatment and self-quarantined in her home.

"I was compelled to my bed for four days straight, I literally did not have the energy to get up and do really anything else except eat, drink and rest," says Rosero. "So it left me a lot of time to think, and it's tough, you start to think about your own mortality."

It took several weeks, but Rosero recovered and is now back at work in the ER. The experience, she says, has given her and her patients a different perspective on the virus.

 

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"Coming back to work after being sick, it actually gives people hope that we can get better, that you can recover from this illness," says Rosero.

As for advice for people going through the same thing as she did, Rosero says, "I would tell people that you know you can get through this, you need to have faith no matter what your religious denomination is ... believe in yourself, that you can get better."