Jaffe, 54, kept fighting, and he was saved at St. Francis Hospital last year.
Health care heroes and family cheered him on as he was released, but what's next?
Jaffe said he is eternally grateful to be alive, but he's had two surgeries and three hospital stays since.
"It took a severe, severe, toll on my family, on myself," he said.
New York is bracing itself to get back to normal, but what will normal be for people like Jaffe?
"Normal would be not having to worry about, if I'm going out with my wife, if I have enough oxygen in the tank," he said.