Berks County man returns home after 149 days in hospital battling COVID-19
Cory Heckman learned to walk and talk again at Reading Hospital Rehab in Spring Township.
WEST READING, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- What happened to a 31-year-old man from Berks County, Pennsylvania is being called a miracle.
After spending 149 days in the hospital battling COVID-19, Cory Heckman is back home.
"He's proof that miracles happen. He was not going to survive and here he is, sitting here next to me, which is amazing," his mother, Alice Heckman, told WFMZ-TV.
A few days after Christmas, Cory went to Pottstown Hospital with a severe case of COVID.
"It got pretty bad," Cory said. "It was pretty much the coughing that worried me the most because it was pretty much nonstop."
He doesn't remember much of his 149 days in the hospital because he was on a ventilator, spent time in a coma and had a tracheotomy to help him breathe.
Cory learned to walk and talk again at Reading Hospital Rehab in Spring Township.
He is grateful for all those who helped him recover.
"I was happy and excited and glad that many people supported me throughout the entire thing," Cory said.
When it was time for him to finally return home on May 26, his family and the facility celebrated his second chance at life.
"It was the most amazing, amazing thing that I have ever seen, and they worked so hard for him," Alice said.
