My name is Rene Segura.
And my name is Tracy Segura.
And I was intubated due to COVID-19.
And he made it home.
Tracy and I, we met
18 years ago in the Dominican Republic.
We were both on vacation and
that's where our love sparked for each other
and we became soul mates.
And then
we got married 10 months after.
Um ...
We met --
TRACY: No, we didn't. No, we didn't. [Laughs]
RENE: Well, I proposed 10 months after.
We've created a beautiful family that
we are strong together.
Tracy, she insisted that I
go to the hospital
which I was against
just because I had gotten tested the day before.
TRACY: No, you got assessed. You didn't get tested.
Yeah, I got an assessment at the
assessment clinic here in Barrie.
And I was told I had a cold.
Luckily I did
listen to her
after she grabbed my face
and
she looked into my eyes and said, 'Rene, you know
you have to go in.'
Things started getting worse as soon as I stepped in
because my breathing started
to decline.
My oxygen levels started to decline.
I started getting fevers.
TRACY: Still, it was something we didn't want to hear.
I knew though that his body was weak
and that's what the doctor said.
He said his body is just too weak right now
to take in the oxygen. It's not going in.
He had already, I think, gone through two different air machines
that just were not working for him.
So the next choice that they had was to just
control his whole body and shut him down.
RENE: He calmed me down and just
spoke and just told me, 'Hey, this is what's going to happen.
But what I want you to do is to look outside.
Look out the door right now"
which was a glass door.
And there was a group of doctors there.
He said, 'You see that? That's my team.
And we're going to take care of you.
We're going to make sure that
we get through this together.
So don't you worry. Call your wife.
Do what you need to do.
Talk to them.
But we got you.'
TRACY: Just before Rene got intubated
he passed along a message
to our nine-year-old daughter, who was turning 10.
So it was Saturday when we spoke with him
and Monday was our daughter's tenth birthday.
So just before hanging up with us
he said, 'Tell Bri
daddy's not going to be home for her birthday
but I'll be there to celebrate with her after.'
And he said, "Tell her I'm sorry."
TRACY: Who is that?
BRI: Jacob said happy birthday to me, didn't he?
"Happy birthday, Sweets. Love you, Daddy."
RENE: When I woke up
it was a little bit scary
because I still had tubes.
I still had a breathing tube
feeding tube
everything.
I was attached.
And
even looking at pictures now, it's like
I don't even remember
having a conversation with Tracy.
TRACY: He came off of the tubes on the Tuesday
and by Tuesday night
he said to me, 'Trace, it doesn't look good for me.'
And I had to...
And we were on FaceTime.
At this point he could FaceTime me on his own.
And I had to tell him, 'Look at me.
You know me.
If I lie to you, you'll be able to tell.'
I said, "You are doing fantastic
and you have no idea how far you've come.
So you have to keep pushing, and you have to keep
focus, because I can't afford for you to mentally
fall apart right now
especially when you've come so far.
RENE: And he said, 'Well, we have two options
for you.
We have the option of you staying here
or
the other option is you go home
and you
heal there.
We've checked you. We've
done everything that we could on our end
and everything looks good.'
So I said, 'Well
I'm going to choose option two.
I want to come home. I want to go home.'
TRACY: It was just the most beautiful moment.
He came in the car, he stuck out his hand towards the kids
and they all grabbed his arm.
I buried my face in his chest and
we just all cried.
And it was just such a moment of relief at that point
because
there wasn't a moment that we had all let out like that.
I hadn't seen the kids cry like that.
I hadn't seen my son cry at all until that moment.
And just to be the five of us together again
was the best feeling.
RENE: You know what, for me it was ...
I cry because
the battle was over.
I was home. TRACY: Yeah.
RENE: I was victorious.
I ...
TRACY: You made it home. RENE: I made it home. I was
TRACY: You did it. You made it home. RENE: I did it.
And I had my kids behind me.
My wife beside me.
And it was just that family
that pushed me forward.
TRACY: We sang Happy Birthday for Bri.
We surprised both of them.
We put out a cake
and sang Happy Birthday
and she broke down.
I ...
She held it together for her birthday in a way that I
did not expect but
that moment we sang Happy Birthday for her with her dad there
she melted and broke down in his arms and
just poured her heart into her dad there
telling him how much she loved him
and it was needed.