SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A pregnant San Diego mother reunited with her two-year-old daughter Wednesday afternoon after beating COVID-19.
"Leaving my husband and my daughter. That was the hardest thing for me," Ashley Duque said.
10News followed her battle from late March when she was hospitalized due to the virus.
Her sister told us Ashley was in a medically induced coma, battling for her and her baby's life.
"It was the uncertainty, it wasn't up to me to decide whether she could come home the next day so it was scary," Ashley's husband, Diego said.
Two weeks went by in the hospital, and slowly she started to get better.
Diego said at that time she was able to speak more, three to five word sentences.
Finally, she came home, but had to wait a week to see her toddler, Anna.
When thinking about explaining to her kids down the road what they went through, Ashley said, "It's okay because this baby is a warrior and my daughter is a warrior for being away from me for so long. We're just a fighting family, a family who fought together and is winning together."
Winning for Ashley meant a loud squeal of excitement and huge hug from Anna when they were reunited Wednesday.
"I ran out to the middle of the street and she ran out to me and I was so happy because I thought she was going to be mad at me," Ashley said concerned, "but seeing her run to me oh my gosh it was the best!"
While Ashley won the battle, the family is still fighting the war.
"We're starting to see a lot more people coming out and that's starting to scare me," she said. "As my doctors put it yesterday they're not concerned about me getting anybody sick, they're concerned about somebody getting me sick. So if somebody had a different type of the virus then we don't know if I could get it again."
She and Diego urged everyone to follow the stay home order, social distance and please wash your hands.
Ashley had one more piece of advice, "you never know the last time you're going to be able to talk to somebody so call your family and annoy them on the phone and tell them how much you love them."