'Miracle' COVID-19 patient released from hospital after 132-day battle

NEW YORK -- After battling COVID-19 for 132 days, Chris Rogan is a miracle patient. He was released from a New York hospital on Tuesday morning.

"It's definitely shocking, because when I went down there, it was only 150,000 cases," Rogan recalled. "When I woke up, it was 2.5 million. I was like, 'What? Are you serious?'"

What was serious is what Rogan went through.

Among other complications, the 29-year-old patient had to be intubated twice for a total of 71 days, coded once, had a tracheotomy and suffered blood clots that resulted in a bedside leg amputation.

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"Actually, when I first woke up, I had no clue about it. The surgical team was like, 'Does it still feel like there's a leg there?' I was like 'What? What do you mean is there still a leg there?' So I knew it was serious," Rogan added.

Rogan's case is much like that of late Broadway actor, Nick Cordero, who also endured a long battle with COVID-19 and lost his leg.

"I could feel what [Cordero's wife] was going through. Like their cases were so similar," said Rogan's wife, Crystal. "Like to the point I would check the news every day to see how Nick Cordero was doing, because it gave me hope that if he was doing better, then Chris would do better, too."

"Better" is precisely Rogan's new outlook on life after his amputation and brink with death.

"It's not the end of the world, and it doesn't define me. I feel like my quality of life is going to be better, because I appreciate so much more," he said.