Take me to Lakeview: Where Ana heard music and felt hope

In April 2020, Ana Lucio felt off; she started to lose her sense of taste and was feeling exhausted. While COVID-19 had started to dominate headlines and preventative restrictions had begun to take shape, there was not a lot of information available and she continued to live a normal life.

“I thought it was just a normal sickness,” Ana said. “I never thought it was COVID.”

She did not realize in a few days she would be hospitalized and within a week she would be intubated and fighting for her life.

Ana remembers going to the doctor for a COVID test after being encouraged by a friend. She remembers the ambulance ride to the ER from the doctor’s office after they discovered her oxygen levels were dangerously low. She even remembers feeling “fine” when she was admitted to the hospital and her COVID test came back positive. But, not long after a phone call to her family in Mexico, her condition deteriorated rapidly, she was sedated and for the next four weeks she stopped remembering.

“When I woke up in the hospital I thought it had been no more than a week. It was very difficult,” Ana said. “I never thought I would have to spend so much time in a hospital.”

Despite being young, having no major health conditions, and walking and talking just fine earlier, Ana was hit hard by COVID-19. She went on to be intubated for four weeks and ultimately had to have a tracheotomy.

“During all of this, more than anything, I never lost faith. I kept telling myself that I would be able to leave, and that I would get better,” she said.

After her tracheotomy Ana slowly started to improve. She was weaned off the ventilator and started physical therapy to regain some strength. The same day she received a negative COVID-19 test, local Utah musical artist Alex Boyé was performing outside the hospital as a thank you to caregivers. She heard the music from her room and asked if she could go outside. The nurses rallied around her to facilitate it and she ended up front row.

“This was the first time I had stepped outside, and I just thought to myself, thank you God for letting me make it out here,” she said. “I remember the feeling of being outside and knowing that I was going to be able to go home.”

Ana’s recovery continued to progress and she was ultimately discharged at the end of May after seven weeks in the hospital.

“When I left the hospital I was still in a delicate state, and it took a couple weeks to recover from the stay, I was still very weak,” she said.

Ana feels that she is still not 100% recovered and that she is at about 80%. While her recovery is challenging, she took some inspiration from Alex Boyé and his wife.

“After seeing Alex, I looked him up on the internet and saw that he was the singer who performed for me that day,” Ana said. “How he began to perform for doctors, hospitals, and other places that help the sick to offer them thanks and a little bit of life and motivation. Alex and his wife really tried to motivate and give hope to the people, spreading the message that it’s possible to get through this and move forward with our families.”

His words and mission inspired her and she continue to try to spread light and positivity through the story of her recovery.

It has now been a year since Ana’s experience with COVID and while it has been a very difficult time for her and remembering being intubated this time a year ago she is grateful for everyone at Lakeview who helped her recover.

“I want to thank all the people who were with me, who prayed for me, who stayed by my side,” Ana said. “To the medical family, to the hospital who always took care of me, truly I thank them all from my heart, I don’t even have the words to thank you for all the care and love I was shown.”

“We are here standing now, feeling the air, the sun, the beautiful flowers — there is a life to live! And if God gave me an opportunity to live, I think it’s because there is a reason.”

**Ana’s story was adapted from Spanish with the use of a translator.