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After 164 days fighting COVID, patient finally walks out of UF Health

After 164 days at UF Health Jacksonville fighting COVID-19, Fabian Granado is escorted out of the hospital. Granado, who was not vaccinated against COVID, is now encouraging others to "do the right thing."
Bob Self
/
Florida Times-Union
After 164 days at UF Health Jacksonville fighting COVID-19, Fabian Granado is escorted out of the hospital. Granado, who was not vaccinated against COVID, is now encouraging others to "do the right thing."

Fabian Granado will celebrate his 27th birthday on Feb. 8. It's a day his close-knit family feared he wouldn't live to see.

Hospitalized 164 days — often near death including two months in a coma — from COVID-19, Granado walked out of UF Health Jacksonville on Tuesday to tears of joy, cheers, handshakes and hugs from the masked medical staff who cared for him day and night.

"I'm feeling wonderful," said Granado in a soft, raspy voice. "It's been a long 5½ months at the hospital getting my lungs healed and being able to talk, walk and you know, be alive and a human again."

Read the rest of this story at WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.