WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — It has been a long road home for a Warner Robins woman battling COVID-19.
Her family says she died twice after suffering major complications.
Now, she's back at home and welcomed in by her neighbors.
"I set up the funeral service, I picked the coffin, the ceremony, the catering, the dress," Bong Arrogante recalls.
A few months ago, the Arrogante family was planning for the worst. Instead, Wednesday was a day for celebration.
After she spent five months in the hospital with COVID-19, Ruby Arrogante and her family got a warm welcome from neighbors.
"I can't imagine being asleep for two months and then waking up and the only thing you could do is move your eyes, so I just thought this would be a great thing," Carl Mays said.
Her husband says doctors call it a miracle. Both lungs collapsed, she had a stroke, went braindead, and even flatlined. Bong Arrogante says after signing a "do not resuscitate" form, he got a call from a nurse that saved her life.
"I said, 'Go tear that paper up, I want you to do everything you can.' As soon as I said that, I just heard him on the phone say, 'Go start CPR,'" he said.
Now with his wife's clean bill of health, he said he’s fortunate.
"We're grateful and very fortunate that were given this second chance," Arrogante said, and he has the neighbors he calls family.
“For them to come out and support, it’s... I just can’t explain. I have mixed emotions. It made me shed a tear or two," he said.
Now that Ruby is back home, she says she's ready to get back into the kitchen to cook some Filipino food.