Published May 17, 2021, 9:14 AM
“I’m not done living yet and have a lot of good to share with the world.”
This was what a 65-year-old Filipino-American said after becoming the first known successful “COVID-to-COVID” double lung transplant recipient in the United States. He is now on his way to recovery.
PHOTO FROM NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE’S FACEBOOK PAGE/ MANILA BULLETIN
Renato Aquino, who immigrated to Illinois from the Philippines to pursue a career in medicine 30 years ago, worked as a phlebotomist on the front lines during the pandemic.
“I spent the last year in and out of hospitals, struggling to breathe – not knowing if I’d live or die… I was a healthy guy with no underlying health conditions, but my symptoms started with a fever and quickly got worse,” Aquino said in a statement from Northwestern Medicine.
Over the past year, doctors repeatedly told Renato Aquino’s family to say their final goodbyes. His niece, Tasha Sundstrom even began making funeral arrangements.
Illinois public health officials on Sunday reported 1,248 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 24 additional deaths. That brings the state’s totals to 1,366,268 cases and 22,439 deaths. There were 52,013 tests reported in the previous 24 hours and the seven-day statewide positivity rate as a percent of total test is 2.4% What’s allowed as Illinois and Chicago reopen: The rules for .