El Paso nurse survives COVID-19, gets vaccine and shares experience

EL PASO, Texas (CBS4) — As COVID-19 vaccinations continue in El Paso, one nurse who recovered from the virus received a vaccine herself.

Adriana Saucedo is back at work as a nurse at the Hospitals of Providence after spending 46 days in the hospital fighting the COVID-19 virus.

She was one of many frontline healthcare workers to receive Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine which was the first one to be approved for emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"It was history in the making to make this happen," Saucedo said. "There were a lot of happy tears amongst my peers, amongst the physicians and amongst everyone."

After a long and difficult battle with the virus, she said she jumped at the opportunity to get vaccinated.

"I definitely didn’t want to go through that experience again," Saucedo said. "The vaccine is meant to help boost one's natural immunity. It actually gives me peace of mind that I don’t have that opportunity to get re-infected myself."

Saucedo had no side effects after receiving the vaccine and pain was minimal.

"Surprisingly I didn’t feel much. My arm was definitely sore, a little more sore than normal, but that was pretty much the gist of it," Saucedo said.

Though she now feels a sense of security she stresses the importance of thinking about others who are still fighting the virus.

"I think back to all those days where I was in the hospital room by myself," Saucedo said. "We still have patients who are at the bedside who still aren’t home for the holidays."

Saucedo is set to receive her second dose of the vaccine in early January.

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