Must-See Video: Neighbors Cheer Holmdel Doc Who Beat Coronavirus

HOLMDEL, NJ — COVID-19 patient — and ER doctor — Mike Savino was just happy to be released from Jersey Shore University Medical Center, and get a slice of pizza. What he never expected to see was a parade of his Holmdel neighbors lining his street when he got home.

Dr. Savino thinks he picked up the virus in late March at the North Jersey hospital where he works. He battled his illness for 12 days at home, where his condition steadily deteriorated. By the time he was gasping for air, he and his wife, also a physician, decided he needed to go to the hospital. He was kept there for a week.

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Savino, 48, is one of the lucky ones: He did not need a ventilator, was given high-flow oxygen and experimental drugs. This past Saturday morning, he was discharged.

However, what he was not expecting to see was all his Holmdel friends and neighbors outside on his street, waving homemade signs, honking their car horns and welcoming him home.

Savino, sitting in the back of his wife's minivan, was completely stunned by the gesture.

"No way! Holy s***!" he can be heard exclaiming in the video. "I'm like Santa Claus!"

"Back from the dead, baby!" he shouts out to his neighbors from the backseat.

"It was extremely last minute," said Savino's wife, Dr. Denise Wunderler. "I found out that morning that he was definitely going to get discharged. (I knew it was a possibility the night before, but didn’t get too excited and didn’t tell anybody since anything can change overnight with a COVID patient)."

"I texted a few friends Saturday morning and said they could tell others who they think may want to be there," she continued. "It was less than one hour from the time I first told a few friends to the time we showed up at the house. It was incredible — people mobilized so quickly to be there!"

People came from as far as Edison, Metuchen and Spotswood and from Holmdel, Hazlet and Middletown, Wunderler said, all to welcome her husband home.

The impromptu welcome-home parade was a feel-good shot in the arm that Savino needed. Even as he recuperates at home, he is still battling a deep cough, weakness, fatigue and shortness of breath. On his personal Facebook page, Savino posts videos of himself singing and trying to exercise his lungs daily.

Savino's sense of humor comes through. His first request as his wife drove him home from the hospital? For a slice of Jersey Shore pizza.

It was three weeks ago, at the end of March, that Savino first started feeling ill.

“I likely contracted it at work from a patient before they were properly isolating the patients and before we knew the severity of COVID-19," he said, speaking through his wife. (His shortness of breath prevented him from giving an interview.)

He and his wife finally decided to take him to the hospital after "I didn't think he would make it through the night if he stayed at home," Wunderler posted on her Facebook page.

At Jersey Shore, he was able to stay out of the intensive care ward, which is mainly reserved for COVID-19 patients on ventilators.

“I was on multiple medicines and supplements, and possibly an experimental COVID drug and high-flow oxygen. Any or all could have contributed to my recovery," said Savino.

"The nurses applauded as transport wheeled me out of the hospital while the Beatles 'Here Comes the Sun' played overhead. Very touching!," he wrote on his Facebook page. "That’s how they soften you up for when the hospital bill comes!"

Wunderler practices sports medicine and Savino is a highly-trained emergency medicine doctor, who served on active duty in Iraq with the U.S. Army in 2010. There, he worked as a field doctor, treating U.S. soldiers, many of whom had been injured by roadside bombs. They live in Holmdel with their two children, both grade-school aged.

This is a family that has also known incredible tragedy: Their third child, Vienna, suddenly died just before her third birthday; her death has been classified as Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC). Patch has written about her story. The family also created a non-profit to educate and research more about SUDC: https://teamviennasudc.org/ as well as SUDCCoalition.com.

Savino shared the following videos that best describe what he calls his COVID-19 journey:

Initial Patch report: Holmdel Doctor Hospitalized With Coronavirus Fights For Life (April 8)