Texas Mom Has Emotional Reunion With Children After Being Hospitalized for More Than a Year Due to COVID

The toll of the COVID-19 hit close to home this week for one Texas family, when a mom who had been hospitalized for over a year because of the coronavirus was finally discharged.

Jazmin Kirkland spent over six months on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine before being reunited with her three kids on August 9, 2022. Kirkland said that her two-year-old son did not recognize her when she walked through the door as her young boy had never seen her outside a hospital setting.

She told ABC's Good Morning America in an interview that her son was 1 when she went into the hospital and he sees it as mom's house. Kirkland added that her son was confused and he did not recognize her because she was not in her PJs or her hospital gown. Kirkland's other kids are ages 10 and 7.

Kirkland needed ECMO for a very long time

Kirkland, her husband, and their two youngest children tested positive for the novel coronavirus on a vacation to South Carolina in August 2021,. The couple had not been vaccinated at the time of their infection.

Kirkland was in a medically-induced coma for a portion of time in the hospital and was under consideration for a lung transplant. Unfortunately, she was then no longer eligible for the transplant after doctors thought her antibodies would reject the lung.

Her lungs improved, though, over time on the ECMO machine, and after eight months Kirkland was removed from the life-saving device, according to The Hill. That is a very long time as patients are typically hooked up to ECMO for just two to four weeks. She was removed from a ventilator a few months later.

Kirkland recounted thinking that she does not care if she wakes up and she does not have an arm or leg. Her only wish was for her to live, saying as long as she is here and she is able to be with her children, she will be fine.

Kirkland's story shows the danger of COVID

The relaxed guidance of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) comes as cases of COVID-19 in the United States have been steadily dropping throughout the month of August, according to the New York Times. Kirkland's story, however, illustrates the dire toll COVID can still take, as she described herself as a perfectly healthy individual with no pre-existing conditions at the time of her infection.

She was transferred to acute care centers and multiple hospitals throughout her illness with most of her time spent at Texoma Medical Center where she was placed on ECMO.

Brandon Davis, who is the cardiovascular intensive care unit manager at Texoma Medical Center told ABC in an interview that a lot of times, patients have to be fully sedated for an extended period of time. They get muscle degeneration during that time so they are having to work to build their muscles, and not only the injured organs.