Coronavirus Survivor Stories: Queens Man Says 'I Don't Think I'd Be Home' If It Wasn't For Blood Plasma Donations
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Queens man who is recovering from the coronavirus believes blood plasma donations saved his life, and he's urging others to donate.
When you have to take on the battle with COVID-19 and fight for your life, Luis Noe says nothing else matters.
"Your perspective of life is completely changed," Noe told CBS2's Jenna DeAngelis. "Nothing meant anything except living and being around for my family."
The 43-year-old father first started experiencing a fever and restlessness on April 5, just a few days after his girlfriend got sick.
Both were quarantined in a room separate from his 69-year-old mother and his son.
"It becomes a little scary, especially as the seventh day went on and I was gasping for air," Noe said.
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In need of immediate medical care, his girlfriend, who was doing much better, took him to Mount Sinai Hospital.
"Right away, they just put me on oxygen and said, 'You're staying,'" Noe said. "I didn't get to say goodbye to my son or my mother."
The ICU was not what he expected, but he had hope.
After all, he chose Mount Sinai because he knew it was experimenting with convalescent plasma treatment.
That's taking donated blood from recovered patients, who have antibodies that can attack the virus, and giving it to people like Noe to boost his ability to fight it.
"I had asked every doctor and every nurse that I would see about the convalescent serum, what would I have to do, I just kind of, like, begged them to get it," Noe said. "As soon as I saw that nurse come in with that convalescent drug, it was like Christmas."
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After a week in the hospital, he was sent home. He is still on oxygen but convinced whoever donated the plasma he received is the reason he is here.
"I don't think I'd be home if it wasn't for that. I don't know if I would be dead or I'd be on a ventilator," Noe said. "Please, if you can, donate your blood. It's going to save lives."
As soon as he's symptom-free, he plans to first hug his family, then donate plasma so more people can hopefully have the outcome he did.
