Coronavirus Philadelphia: Local Boxer Luis Roche Has Strong Warning For Others After He Was Told He Had '20% Chance Of Surviving' COVID-19
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With quarantine fatigue looming for many people, one Philadelphia boxer and COVID-19 survivor is reminding people to keep staying at home. The hospital is not a place Luis Roche ever wanted to be. He'd rather be gloved up inside the boxing ring.
"This is the worst. This virus is not a joke," he said.
In the ring, he's known as Hazel Roche, or the Latin Lover or the heavyweight celebrity boxing champion.
Until Monday, the 42-year-old was at Temple University Hospital battling COVID-19 for more than two weeks.
"Eleven days was in the intensive care," Roche said. "A doctor came and told me, 'You are at 20%.' And I'm like, 'What's 20%?' And he said, 'You have a 20% chance of surviving the virus.' Mentally, I collapsed."
It didn't help that his mother was in a room nearby, having also contracted the virus.
So Roche posted a Facebook Live video, which now has more than 12,000 views.
"It's a bad virus. Don't think this is just like a cold," he warned.
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And with the weather warming, and for some, quarantine fatigue setting in, Roche says he wants everyone to know just how important it is to shelter-at-home until officials say otherwise.
"People are dying. We don't have a cure for this. Stay in your house, play Xbox, Playstation if that's you. Watch TV, work out," Roche said. "When you go to the hospital, there is none of that."
Starting May 8, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf says certain parts of the state will begin the reopening process. But he says the Philadelphia region will likely be the last part of the state to reopen.
Roche's mother is due out of the hospital Tuesday.
