MEDFORD, MASS. (WHDH) - Community members turned out in a show of support for a retired Medford firefighter who won a months-long battle with coronavirus Tuesday.
Friends, family and firefighters from surrounding towns coming out for a surprise drive-by parade for Hal Simmons — who is still recovering after a long battle with coronavirus.
“I’m still feeling a little sketchy but glad that I’m home…amazing to be home,” Simmons said. “Four months I was in the hospital just a long time to be without family.”
He was diagnosed with COVID-19 back in March and spent more than a hundred days in multiple hospitals across the state.
He was put in a medically induced coma for the first two months of treatment and was finally unhooked from a ventilator last week.
Now, Simmons is undergoing physical therapy to regain some of the strength he lost.
“It was a long time, stressful for me and my family they were all worried about me,” Simmons said. “I was in a place where I didn’t know what was going on so it didn’t bother me too much.”
The firefighter said he has received support from loved ones and his fellow coworkers from over the years, but today was the ultimate surprise.
“It’s wonderful I can’t tell ya how it is. I knew it happened because I’ve done it myself but I never expected to have it done.”
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