New Jersey man thanks hospital staff after recovering from massive heart attack

CAMDEN - A New Jersey man returned to a local hospital where he spent 75 days after suffering a massive heart attack to thank the staff that nursed him back to health. 

Erik Leach said the staff at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden "mean a lot to him" after his life changing health scare. 

"You know it’s a lot emotionally," Leach said. "These guys really mean a lot to me, I mean, for the rest of my life I’m still going forward because of them, so I owe them."

The hospital staff, who called Leach the "miracle patient," were just as excited to see a healthy Leach walk the halls of the hospital on Tuesday. 

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""I was so excited," Dr. Qiong Yang said. "Then they told me he was fully recovered and he went back to work." 

Leach also reconnected with Frank Talerico, a fellow former patient who also defeated the odds during a bout with COVID-19 and encouraged him to never give up.

"He kept asking me if I thought that he would get better, and I said ‘look at me, I was where you were a little while ago and here I am now walking around talking like nothing happened’," Talerico said.

Hospital staff looked on as Leach and Talerico reconnected and exchanged phone numbers so they can stay in touch in the future. 

"I couldn’t contain my tears," Nurse Educator Jaclyn Patterson said. "I’m generally a pretty emotional person, but my God that is just beyond anything we could’ve expected, just to even see them leave the hospital but then have a complete recovery and be able to reconnect that way is so special."