'Could have been a different story': Early COVID survivors return to Fairfax hospital ICU

FAIRFAX, Va. (7News) — This week marks four years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic and 7News Health and Wellness Reporter Victoria Sanchez caught up with two survivors after first sharing their stories in 2020.

Titou Phommachanh and Rodrigo Valderrama greeted each other with a hug in front of Inova Fairfax Hospital. Before the two became the faces of COVID-19 in Northern Virginia four years ago, the men had never met.

SEE ALSO | 4 Years Later | 7News reflects on the 2020 pandemic declaration

Now, they joke they are in a "club you never wanted to be a part of," said Titou's wife Amanda Phommachanh with a laugh.

“It’s weird how much the world’s gone back to normal," Titou said as he walked down the hospital hall.

Titou and Rodrigo were in medically induced comas and put on ECMO, a heart and lung bypass machine to try to save their lives after contracting COVID early on. They stopped by Inova Fairfax Hospital's medical-surgical intensive care unit, which was the COVID ward in 2020.

“This is a place where it could have been a different story," Titou told Sanchez. “It was very much different four years ago. I’m glad it is what it is now. We can persevere and move forward.”

“We don’t know when it’s going to be our last day. So, we just need to enjoy every day because it can be tomorrow, it can be today. Who knows? But just enjoy every day of my life," said Rodrigo.

In 2020, 7News was the only station allowed inside the COVID unit where every bed was filled with someone suffering from the coronavirus. Technicians, nurses and doctors were covered head to toe in gowns, multiple masks and face shields.

Today, things look like they did pre-pandemic.