Jessica Arteaga couldn't have been more excited when she received a Peloton under the Christmas tree last year. The Los Angeles native immediately began taking classes with Robin, Alex and Jess King and fell in love with cycling. But she had no idea at the time how big of a role her Bike – and the Peloton community – would eventually play in helping her recover from a devastating personal loss.
On April 9, Arteaga lost her father Deyrold Arteaga, 63, to COVID-19. The Los Angeles software consultant was heartbroken to learn that her dad had tested positive to the coronavirus this spring. But she remained hopeful that he could still make a full recovery after he began to show visible signs of improvement during the first few days of his hospital stay.
“My dad was a retired entrepreneur,” says Arteaga. “A few years ago, he took a job as a volunteer EMT in New York City. He was working all through the month of March. When this whole thing started, I was calling and texting saying, 'Maybe you should take some time off.' He'd protest and say, “No, I feel really safe.' I accepted it because we didn't know how contagious and deadly this thing was going to be yet.”
By late March, Arteaga received a call from her dad informing her that he had transported a patient who had COVID-19, but he promised her that he would take a coronavirus test as a precaution even though he felt fine. Four days later, his test results came back positive and Deyrold was administered oxygen in the hospital because he was struggling to breathe.
Although he was sent home a few days later, the Haitian immigrant was rushed back to the same hospital that following week where his health took a turn for the worse. “The situation turned dire really quickly,” recalls Arteaga. “His kidneys failed within the first 24 hours. His breathing required almost the maximum ventilator amount. They couldn't perform the dialysis he needed so they were urging us to put him on hospice. They were asking if I was ready to take him off the ventilator, but I wasn't ready.”
Instead, she opted to have her dad transferred to another hospital where she was told he could receive a specialized form of dialysis. Arteaga was praying for a miracle but, after the procedure was performed, her father went into cardiac arrest after his ventilator accidentally came out in the middle of the night.
Although doctors and nurses struggled to revive him, Deyrold went into cardiac arrest a second time, prompting doctors to call Arteaga for permission to remove his ventilator. But, before she even had time to make a final decision, her father succumbed to the inevitable. “I just started bawling,” says Arteaga who heard them call the time of death on the phone. “Hearing all that is really indescribable,” she says. “There was really nothing they could do from that point. He couldn't come back.”
Despite her grief, Arteaga woke up and decided to draw strength from her Peloton the very next day. “I just had this epiphany like this is the only thing I can control so I guess I'll just go back on my Bike,” she says. “I took a class with Robin because she is my absolute favorite instructor. She's so inspirational and motivational. I cried through the whole ride, but it was totally what I needed at that time.”
In an effort to spread awareness about COVID-19, Arteaga also decided to share her father's story with other Members on social media that same day. She received thousands of messages from the Peloton community, providing her with much-needed comfort and words of support. “To say that I was overwhelmed is an understatement,” she says. “It was really just a whole other level of emotion to have 15,000 strangers – people I've never met before – taking a moment out of their day to send me notes with love and encouragement.”
Arteaga says she hopes to honor her father's memory by climbing back into the saddle again. “My dad went into this battle without any armor,” she says. “Had he not had high blood pressure and diabetes and been obese, he would have had a better chance of winning this fight. That's kind of been the key for me through this whole journey. I can't let this happen without it serving some sort of purpose in my life. And, if that purpose is for me to focus on my own mental and physical health and well-being, I'm going to make that a priority.”
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