PHOENIX — We’ve followed Dr. Karl Viddal's remarkable road to recovery since the beginning.
The Phoenix-area doctor, in private practice, was one of the first in the nation to wind up in the hospital with a months-long battle against COVID-19.
It was at the very beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
"I would say there were probably dozens of times we thought he wouldn’t make it through the night or the next few hours," Dr. Ross Bremner of Dignity Health St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center said.
But a year and a half later, Dr. Viddal said he’s back, and better than ever.
To prove it he went hiking up one of the hardest trails in the Valley Saturday morning at Camelback Mountain with the team of doctors who saved his life.
"Coming out of the coma I was paralyzed, I couldn’t speak," Viddal said. "It's humbling to have to learn how to walk again. As far as thinking about a task like this, I didn’t think I'd ever be able to hike a mountain again, I had a hard enough time trying to climb a set of stairs."
Bremner said Viddal has made a full recovery.
"We would say his lungs, the amazing thing is they have returned to normal."
The small group of doctors from Dignity who Viddal credits his life with trekked up Echo Canyon Trail with him, all with smiles on their faces.
"I think we all feel that this pandemic has gone on and on and the healthcare workforce is pretty exhausted so it's things like this, people like Karl, that really encourage us and give us energy to keep going," Bremner stated.
"I think it's extremely rewarding for me to show them I can do this and I‘m alive because of them," Viddal concluded.
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