A Phoenix-area doctor who survived a near-fatal bout with COVID-19 last year spent Saturday hiking Camelback Mountain’s Echo Canyon Trail with the doctors and nurses who treated him.
Karl Viddal spent 34 days on a ventilator, 28 days in a medically induced coma and 16 days on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, in which a bypass machine takes over the work of the heart and lungs.
He says good health is never a guarantee.
“Y’know, it’s crazy, we take our health for granted, we don’t realize how precious it is until it’s taken away from us,” said Viddal.
Viddal says he had a nearly 100% mortality rate at one point during his treatment.
He says he now exercises three to four times a week, and it is his goal to regain his prior level of health and fitness, despite lingering respiratory issues from COVID-19.
