Coronavirus Latest: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Nurse Back At Work After Tough Battle With COVID-19
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- For the first time in weeks, a nurse from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia is back to work after a tough battle with the coronavirus. Jennifer Gil is a fighter but she says overcoming the virus wasn't easy.
"I was nervous," Gil said.
For a few weeks, Gil, an emergency room nurse, found herself giving everything she had to survive COVID-19.
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"There wasn't a day that passed by that I didn't think I could possibly lose my life," Gil said.
Gil was one of the first people in the city diagnosed with the virus. She's not exactly sure how she got it but says her symptoms were only mild.
"It started with a headache, body aches, fevers," she said.
Gil described what she did to try to fight the virus.
"I needed to stay hydrated. I needed to eat even though I didn't want to," she said. "I worked on deep breathing."
Meantime, for the first time in weeks, Gil is healthy again and is now back to work on the frontlines, in the emergency department at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and helping people with the same virus she battled.
"I was so thankful to have my health, to have gone what I went through, but to able to go back and continue the work I love, that I was meant to do and I'm able to provide a different perspective now," Gil said.
Gil also hopes she sends a message of hope to others.
