Survival Story: Nurse Leaves Long Beach Hospital After 8 Months as COVID-19 Patient

LONG BEACH, California (KABC) – It was a day when a local nurse thought she would never come.

After approaching death several times during eight months of coronavirus treatment, Merlin Pambuan was finally released from the hospital on Monday.

Pambuan was not just a patient at St. John’s Medical Center. Mary from Long Beach – but worked as a nurse there for 40 years.

Doctors say he approached death several times and underwent painful physical therapy just to be able to stand again, but he succeeded.

Hospital staff cheered when he finally left for home.

She had advice for other patients struggling with COVID-19: “Just fight. Fight. Because look at me: I go home and walk.”