After 45 days in the hospital, several of them spent on a ventilator, Nick Yaworsky is home.
Neighbors cheered, held signs with encouraging messages and chanted ‘We love you Nick!’ as his wife drove with him through their Greer neighborhood.
Cheery yellow garland and paper ornaments decked trees leading to his driveway. Nearly every mailbox had a yellow balloon tied on.
“We never imagined it (the coronavirus) would hit our neighborhood,” said Debbie Howell, a friend and neighbor who helped coordinate the signs and other decorations welcoming Nick home, “It was at first a shock, and then ‘Oh my goodness, how can we help this man?’”
The 44-year-old father of 3 daughters was diagnosed with COVID-19 in March. The Yaworsky’s went to Disney World on vacation earlier that month. His wife, Angela, told WYFF4’s Renee Wunderlich they think everyone may have come back with the coronavirus; one daughter had a temperature, Angela and Nick both tested positive.
But then Nick got really sick.
“It came very close...to the point where I went to the hospital, while he was on the ventilator, he didn’t know I was there, and said my goodbyes to him. I thanked him for my family, thanked him for my children, for the life that he’s given me, and thought that was the last time I would see him,” Angela said.
Now, he’s in recovery.
His little girls, Eva, 5, and twins Amelia and Nora, both 7, were so excited to see him, but they’ll have to keep their distance until his symptoms are gone.
“It’s something we didn’t expect, and we’re all at risk and we probably won’t be able to see him for quite a while,” said Eleanore Yaworsky, Nick’s mother.
The Yaworsky’s want to thank the nurses and other healthcare providers who stayed by his side helping him battle the virus, and all their friends who prayed, raised money and continue to support them.
“Pretty humbling,” was all Nick could say through his mask, greeting his family and friends from a good several feet away. Then Angela helped her husband, winded from getting out of the car, into their home.