Michael Gawel was sent off Tuesday morning with a round of applause from the hospital staff who cared for him while he was on a ventilator for much of the last two months. The 64-year-old Niagara Falls resident, speaking to the media while on a stretcher in a hospital overhead walkway, said he was grateful for that care.
“Everybody, from the doctors and nurses, everybody was just fantastic. I think I was gone a couple of times, and they brought me back,” he said. “Then my wife, if it wasn't for her and everybody here, I'd be gone. I'd be dead.”