Gift expression of gratitude from recovering patient and partner
Dennis Delos Santos says one of the main reasons he’s alive today is because of the medical care he received while hospitalized with COVID-19.
“They’re like soldiers in the battlefield,” he said of his health care providers. “They put their lives in danger to save other lives. The government should give them an award – the Victoria Cross – because they are modern-day heroes.”
Delos Santos is a lucky man, although it may not have seemed like it at the time. He was first rushed to the Regina General Hospital on March 23 because of breathing issues. Between then and May 27, he had blood clots that caused a heart attack and resulted in him undergoing angioplasty, a procedure to open a blocked or narrowed artery around the heart. He was intubated, put into an induced coma that “paralyzed” him and spent 20 days hooked up to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation – known as ECMO. An ECMO machine replaces the function of the heart and lungs and is a last-ditch intervention to save a person’s life. While on ECMO, Delos Santos had a tracheostomy, a procedure to create an opening in the neck so a tube can be placed into the windpipe.
“It was a worrying time,” said Kate Conrado, Delos Santos’s partner and mother of their five-year-old and one-year-old daughters.
Throughout their ordeal, Conrado and Delos Santos – when he was alert – put their faith in God and in their medical team.
“I told Kate, ‘No matter what, I would stay alive as much as I can. I told her to trust the doctors and other health workers.”
Springtime was surreal. Conrado and Delos Santos’s eldest daughter, Nicole, visited Delos Santos daily and Facetimed him at the hospital with family and his four children from an earlier relationship.
At one point, Delos Santos wasn’t responding to treatment and doctors advised Conrado to discuss next steps with the family.
Although on occasion Conrado resorted to tears, she said “I had to be strong for the children.”
During Delos Santos’s stay, hospital staff showed the couple only kindness and compassion.
“Whenever we had questions, they were very patient with us,” said Conrado.
In the evenings, the staff would recite the names of Delos Santos’s children to him and play Delos Santos favourite songs from the Philippines, which his daughter, Kyla, recorded for him.
“When Dennis woke up (from his coma), he asked us if he had been to the Philippines because he heard the songs,” said Conrado.
To show the couple’s gratitude, Delos Santos presented the staff of Unit 5E, the medicine unit where he spent much of his time in hospital, with a picture painted by Conrado. The painting represents his hospital stay.
“COVID feels like we are floating in bubbles, vulnerable and powerless,” said Conrado, describing the painting. “In the front, there are front-line staff protecting the community, shielding them from the virus.” The colourful background signifies hope and peace.
The couple presented the painting to 5E staff on Delos Santos’s last day in hospital.
Staff were so pleased to receive the gift they framed it and hung it where it is visible from the nurses’ desk.
One staff member said the painting demonstrates the strength and unity of the medical team as they combat COVID-19. Another said she interprets the artwork’s message as “full force against the pandemic.”
Delos Santos’s steady recovery continues. No longer dancing with death, he can now walk 30 metres unassisted. He hopes to be fully recovered sometime in August.
