"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?'"
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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."
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"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.