VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Thirty-five-year-old April Rodriguez posted a video on Instagram as she lay in a Florida hospital bed in March.
In the video, the flight attendant said, "I'm asking all of my flight attendant friends to stop flying. It's not worth it. Forget your mortgage, forget your bills. Stay home."
Rodriguez said she contracted coronavirus after she worked from March 11 through March 23.
On March 24, she said she felt like she had allergies. It turned out she had COVID-19.
"I would feel like I could die like I feel like I'm going to die," Rodriguez said.
Her symptoms were serious even though she said she eats nutritious food, works out regularly, and overall is young and healthy.
Even for work, her flights looked mostly empty and after her shifts, she said she “went nowhere except for my hotel room and home."
With the information at the time, she thought she did everything right and she quarantined herself when she felt mild symptoms.
"I'm not posting this to scare anybody," Rodriguez said.
"But I'm trying to post this to prevent my friends from being in the same place I am."
Now back in her hometown of Virginia Beach, she's not contagious but still healing.
"I am extremely tired. I cannot work out," she said.
"And I have scarring in my lungs and those are things that will take time.”
Even though airlines have new rules such as requiring masks, and every airline is deep cleaning its planes, Rodriguez won't forget her battle with the virus.
She's asking flight attendants to make sure they take every precaution they can to protect themselves and travelers.
“You can't buy health. Your health comes once in a lifetime and I want to be a good steward to the life that God's giving me,” said Rodriguez.