LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Three months ago we shared a mother's plea, begging people to get vaccinated, as she watched her teenage son fight for his life from a hospital bed.
After three months battling COVID-19, the 13-year-old is finally home.
"I'm very happy to be here. I did not think that we were gonna be here. He was so critical for so long. I did not think we were gonna be here," Angela Morris said.
Angela holds her son, Alexx Morris Cooper's, hand tight, as they sit side-by-side in his room, a place they haven't been in months.
"This is nowhere what I imagined. I read the news too and all the people on COVID and ventilators and I would have just never imagined this was going to be our life for a little while now," she said.
They called the hospital home for the past 16 weeks, as Alexx battled COVID-19, spending most of his time on the ventilator with the machine breathing for him.
"It was a lot of stress, a lot of confusion. I was overstimulated and overwhelmed," Angela said.
It was the little victories, like Alexx's first day without oxygen and his first time sitting up alone, that got Angela through.
Just days ago, on Friday Oct. 22, the family got the news they had been waiting for, Alex could finally go home.
But for Angela that news came with a mix of emotions.
"I was very happy, but I was also very nervous because his care is all on me now," she said.
According to Angela, at least eight hours of Alexx's week now involves physical, occupational and speech therapy.
She said her 13-year-old son slowly has to learn how to walk, talk, and breathe again.
Dr. Rick Barr, with Arkansas Children's, said all of this is the body healing itself.
"There are a lot of things that a child has to go through to recover from any type of critical illness, let alone COVID," he said.
For a child that was on a ventilator as long as Alexx was, Barr said the lungs have to learn to walk on their own again.
"I think the short answer is it just takes time. There's no magic bullet, there's no, you know, necessary treatment that we can use," he said.
Barr said with a child that was in such critical care, there's no telling when Alexx will be himself again, all he knows is that it will be a long road.
"I wish we had a different answer that we could just fix this, but it just takes time and a lot of good medical care and attention and support by the family," he said.
While Angela is back home, she's treasuring every moment with her son.
"Him talking, him smiling at me, and just him being here," she said.
Angela's message is the same from Alexx's room, as it was next to his hospital bed.
"A shot is definitely a lot easier than where we are right now," she said.
If you would like to help the family out, you can donate to their GoFundMe here.