Four Corners patient discharged from hospital after long battle with COVID

FARMINGTON, N.M.—After spending nearly two months at San Juan Regional Medical Center, longtime COVID ICU patient Joshua Maytubby was discharged.

“We also like to share this too because it really helps the entire community see that together, we can be resilient as a community and even in the faith of considerable adversity, we can work together and do our best to overcome the COVID illness," said Dr. Brad Greenberg, an emergency physician at SJRMC.

It’s been almost a year since San Juan County saw its first case of COVID-19. While the county was hit hard in the beginning, hospital officials said they’ve seen progress.

"So the hospital—we do have a decrease in our overall inpatient COVID-19 census. That is indeed progress, and we are enthusiastic that the patient numbers throughout the hospital are down compared to the peak," Dr. Greenberg said.

On Wednesday, San Juan County took another step forward after it was moved from Level Yellow to Level Green.

“But let’s remember that movement and improvement in these public health indices really are a product of the sum of all of our individual choices, and we have to continue making good choices to maintain and improve upon the great progress that we’ve made it thus far," Dr.Greenberg added.

Health officials said the effort to vaccinate people continues.

As for COVID-19 patient discharges, the hospital hopes to celebrate more milestones.