WHITEHOUSE, Ohio — This Thanksgiving, so many who have battled the coronavirus are just thankful to still be here.
A Whitehouse woman is urging everyone to take the virus seriously and to do your part to end it.
Council Member Louann Artiaga spoke to WTOL 11 about her battle, the harsh reality she saw in the hospital and what we all can do to help our frontline workers and each other.
"Six members of my family, including myself, all got symptoms from COVID," she said.
Artiaga is feeling much better after spending nearly a week at St. Luke's Hospital with COVID-19.
"I had horrible horrible chills right down to the bone," she said, "where a friend brought me a heating pad and it didn't do anything to relieve the chills and things."
She talked about her battle in a public post on Facebook. And in it, she revealed the harsh reality she witnessed inside the emergency room. She says she waited six hours to see a doctor and saw others "repeatedly beg ER staff for help" but each time staff politely said they were full and working as quickly as they could.
Artiaga praised the hospital workers on the frontlines every day.
"One thing I didn't see is any of the hospital staff complaining," she said. "They bent over backward to help each and every person as they were capable of helping."
But she stressed it doesn't have to be this way.
"I think it's our individual responsibilities to take this seriously because we ultimately control our own actions," she said. "We ultimately control if we wear our masks in public."
Although she is alive and recovering, Artiaga doesn't get why some people want to quote "get it and get it over with" when it's causing long-term problems for some people.
"Once you've got it and it's destroyed or damaged your lungs or your kidneys or your heart, or in some cases taken a life," she added, "those things you can't get back."
She says she did not see her family for Thanksgiving and won't for Christmas. Instead, they plan to get together in January to celebrate life and the fact that they all are still here after getting COVID-19.
"If this article that I posted on Facebook and my interview with you even convinces one person to take this more seriously," she said, "then my opening up with my experiences and sharing some very personal moments to me is absolutely well worth it."
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