HOUSTON (CNN/KTRK) — A Texas woman is counting her blessings after contracting both COVID-19 and the flu at the same time.
Eleana Topp’s husband and four children feared what was to come. But after a long battle and months in the hospital, she is now back home.
Throughout her life, Topp has turned to her faith to get her through the toughest challenges.
“My faith has been very strong,” she told KTRK.
Back in March, the realtor and mother of four started feeling sick, so she went to the doctor.
“What happened back in March when I was tested for the first time for COVID-19, it came out that I had the flu and COVID-19,” Topp said. “I had both.”
Weeks later, she found herself in the hospital fighting for her life.
“They had the ventilator maxed out and all the parameters on the ventilator were showing that she wasn’t improving,” Eleana’s husband Daniel Topp said. “Matter of fact, she was going the opposite way, and then she was starting to get multi-organ failure.”
Daniel said it got so bad, the staff started to prepare their family for what could come.
“In my mind I said, ‘she’s not going to die from this,'” Daniel said. “She’s going to survive and there’s no doubt she was.”
Things started to turn around. After seven weeks, Eleana was finally able to get off the ventilator.
Once she beat the virus, she was able to continue her rehabilitation. Just last week, after months in the hospital, she finally returned home.
“I’m going to cry because I am the happiest woman in the world to be with my family, back in my community, with my church, my family, my friends.”