Last year, Paulo Santos spent weeks on a ventilator at
Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center after being
diagnosed with COVID-19 and double pneumonia. On Saturday, the 40-year-old ran 20 miles to raise money for the health care workers who saved his life.
News 12’s Keith Kocinski was at CentraState Medical Center
in Freehold where Santos began his journey. He spoke to him when he completed the run in Neptune.
"It feels unbelievable," he said. "It symbolizes the end of recovery.
Santos, a Manalapan resident, has come a long way from when
he stopped breathing on his own on March 23, 2020. At that time Hackensack
Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center had recently been approved to
begin testing Remdesivir on COVID-19 patients, and the decision was made to
transfer him there.
He began showing signs of improvement, and on April 7, 2020,
his vitals were good enough for the ventilator to be removed. He went home
three days later.
Having lost 45 pounds and much of his strength, he decided to
take up running as a way to build himself back up. Over the summer, he made the
decision to make today’s run and to raise money for the two medical centers to
express his gratitude for saving his life.
He also suffered a heart attack from a COVID-19-related
blood clot in September which set him back, but his passion for the run kept
him going.
"I no longer want to be a survivor, I no longer want to
be someone in recovery. I just want to be me and be better,” he told News 12.
“I think this is going to close out the chapter of the COVID survivor guy and
just move on.”