COVID

Salem father leaves hospital after month-long fight with COVID-19

The man's 12-year-old daughter remains hospitalized with the virus.

The DeCelle family. GoFundMe

By Christopher Gavin

1 minute to read
ICYMI

A Salem father is home after he was hospitalized for over a month with COVID-19.

Mike DeCelle and his family, including his wife Erica, who is pregnant, and his two daughters, Kylie and Mikayla, tested positive for the virus in late November.

Out of the family of four, Mike and Mikayla were both unvaccinated against COVID-19 and became ill enough to require hospitalization. (Mike promised to get vaccinated before the newest addition of the family is slated to arrive in February, while Mikayla was scheduled to get the shot but had not yet when the DeCelles became sick.)

“We fought it as a family,” Mike told WCVB recently after arriving home from the hospital. “We got through it, and now we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

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When Mike began to have difficulty breathing one night in November, he was rushed to Salem Hospital and later transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital and intubated.

He spent two weeks on a ventilator and stayed another week at the hospital to grow stronger in order to be brought to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, WCVB reports.

Mike told the news station his reluctance to getting vaccinated earlier stemmed from his fear of needles, but he now regrets letting that discourage him.

“You’ve got to really protect yourself. Even if you don’t have any underlying health problem, you’ve got to protect yourself. Get vaccinated,” he said. “I should have [done] it. That could have prevented a lot of problems.”

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Mike said being present for the birth of his new baby, due early next year, kept him motivated to get better.

“Erica used to talk to me and tell me, ‘You got to be there for the birth of Cameron. You have to do this,'” he said. “And that’s what fueled me to get better.”

Mikalya, however, remains hospitalized, according to WCVB.

The 12-year-old suffers from severe asthma. She is no longer using a ventilator, but still has a long road to recovery, the news station reports.

The community came together for the DeCelle family last month through a GoFundMe online fundraiser that’s raised over $53,000.

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