An 'absolute miracle': Tony Luke's son recovers from COVID-19

These times can be frightening, and with so much loss stemming from the coronavirus, one man's story serves as a ray of hope.

Michael Lucidonio is a husband and father and he is now a COVID-19 survivor.

Lucidonio's father is a household name in the Philadelphia cheesesteak scene. Both Lucidonio and his dad, Tony Luke Jr., want the community to know that miracles do happen.

"It was one of the most emotional times of my life and the most scared I've ever been," Lucidonio says. "I didn't know if I would see my family again, or my wife and daughter again."

Eleven days after he first started feeling symptoms, 35-year-old Lucidonio almost died.

As he was getting hooked up to a ventilator, he remembers this exchange with his doctor.

"He said, 'We are going to do this. Are you ready?' And tears welled up in my eyes and I looked at him and said, 'Please, please. I don't want to die. Don't let me die.' He looked in my eyes and said, 'I got you. Don't worry about it,'" Lucidonio said.

Two and a half days later, he woke up.

"I remember when he called me," said Luke, Jr., recalling the moment his son came out of his coma. "I fell to the floor when he said, 'Hey. buddy.'"

Luke, Jr. had just marked the third anniversary of the death of his older son Anthony, who passed away after a heroin overdose.

"I remember saying, 'God, I don't think l will make it through this one,'" Luke, Jr. says.

But Michael made it out alive, and made it home to his wife and daughter.

"No one can tell me that wasn't a miracle," he says. "It was an absolute miracle. I could never repay the doctors and the people who prayed for us."

Lucidonio wants people to take this virus seriously.

"I am relatively young, 35 years old," he says. " I have no other health issues and this was still the hardest fight of my life."

If you're not feeling well, seek medical help. He says don't try to fight this alone.

"I want people to walk away with hope and know it is something you can get through," Lucidonio says.

Lucidonio is now home and on the mend. He's still weak and suffers from fatigue, but he's taking it day by day. He's been spending his days in recovery as a mentor and friend to others who are sick with this virus.

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