Rep. Lorenzo Sierra on his battle with COVID

Lorenzo Sierra

A few weeks ago, Rep. Lorenzo Sierra was on a ventilator fighting for his life. Doctors told him he had a 33% survival rate due to his condition and age.

On Sept. 23, Sierra and his wife started noticing symptoms after traveling to DC for a family visit. They received treatment at a hospital, but a week later, Sierra noticed his oximeter had dipped into the low 80s and decided on another hospital visit.

“I was told by the folks over at John Hopkins had I waited, I would not have made it,” said Sierra who contemplated waiting until the next day for a checkup.

A few hours after he went in, Sierra was connected to a ventilator. Sierra was then transferred from his community hospital to John Hopkins Hospital, where he received steroids and experimental convalescent plasma.

Recovery

“When they first woke me up, I struggled to talk; I couldn’t move my legs,” Sierra said. “As far as I knew, I was out for ten minutes, and then they told me I had been out for four days.”

Although he still experiences numbness in his legs, occasional pains, and varying levels of fatigue, Sierra says his recovery has been relatively quick and he feels good otherwise.

His experience

Sierra and his wife are not sure how they contracted the virus. They hand sanitized, wore N95 masks, and maintained social distance through all their encounters, said Sierra.

“I took every precaution; I almost lost my life to this virus. All we have to do is stick out for however much longer than we have to, and it shouldn’t be that big of a deal to want to be able to help our countrymen, to help our neighbor, to help our friends; and I hope that they will take that into consideration,” Sierra said.