After being diagnosed with COVID-19 and spending more than a month fighting for his life, Matteo Baca is back home with his family.The 13-month-old is the first baby in New Mexico to be placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for the virus at The University of New Mexico Hospital.ECMO removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back in the body, giving the heart and lungs a chance to heal.The ordeal began in early December with a COVID-19 diagnosis after Matteo had tubes placed in his ears for recurring ear infections. When he returned home from the procedure, he was fussy, began coughing and then developed a fever, his mother, Shannarose Martinez, said.After a couple of trips to the emergency department, he was admitted on Dec. 5. His fever was constant. He was lethargic. He wasn바카라 게임 웹사이트�t eating or drinking. His coughing was terrible."It would take him 45 minutes for him to recover from coughing," Martinez said.Martinez said she couldn't believe her son tested positive. The family was vaccinated, she said and had practiced all recommended safety measures."I felt so defeated. Why couldn바카라 게임 웹사이트�t I protect him?" she said. "It floors me so much that he got so sick. He was so healthy."Matteo seemed to get sicker and sicker astonishingly fast, she said, with his oxygen dropping. Soon, Matteo was moved to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.Tracking COVID-19:COVID restrictions continue to be lifted as CDC hints at better times ahead The US is lagging on booster shots compared to other western countriesCOVID-19 daily case rates decrease, but thousands are still dying from virus every day Matteo soon required a breathing tube and a chest tube. Matteo바카라 게임 웹사이트�s oxygen saturations were getting worse and the amount of support he was needing to breathe was getting higher and higher. "And at a certain point you consider whether or not he would be a candidate for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation," said Alia Broman, an assistant professor in the UNM Division of Pediatric Critical Care.Broman called in other physicians to conduct the ECMO procedure."It's really a group effort," Broman said. "Everything that goes into putting a kid on ECMO 바카라 게임 웹사이트� it's never something that we decide by ourselves. We're always talking with the surgeons about whether or not they think the children would be good candidates and (whether) they've got a chance of survival, because once you're going on ECMO, you have about a 50-50 chance of mortality. It's not 100% guaranteed that you're going to be able to survive, first of all, getting put on the machine, and second of all, survive coming off the machine."Making the decision to have her son be placed on ECMO was difficult, Martinez said, adding she also learned that the outcome for him could have been worse if he didn바카라 게임 웹사이트�t have the procedure. As she was signing the paperwork for the ECMO procedure, Matteo바카라 게임 웹사이트�s condition worsened and medical personnel rushed into the room."I was yelling and screaming, 'What바카라 게임 웹사이트�s happening?' I lost hope," Martinez said. "I didn바카라 게임 웹사이트�t know if I was losing my baby. It was the longest hour of our lives."The ECMO procedure was a success. Matteo바카라 게임 웹사이트�s oxygen saturation was back at 100%. Matteo was on ECMO for nine days."His little body was hooked up to so many machines," Martinez says. "I got the hope I needed back."On Dec. 20, Matteo was taken off ECMO. A few days later, he was gradually weaned from the ventilator and was completely off of it on Christmas Eve."He was our little Christmas miracle," Martinez said. "We wouldn바카라 게임 웹사이트�t be where we are without all of the doctors and nurses and, of course, all of the prayers."By the Tuesday after Christmas, he was completely off of supplemental oxygen.A Venmo account, @MatteoStrong, is accepting donations to help the family with medical expenses.