NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — On Wednesday, a man that survived COVID-19 returned to one of the facilities where he was treated to thank the healthcare workers and to share his message with others.

Tracey Shorter, a Nashville native, told News 2 he spent 22 days at TriStar Centennial’s ICU after being diagnosed with COVID-19. He was placed in a medically induced coma and his breathing was being supported by ECMO.

Once he was discharged from the ICU, he was transferred to TriStar Skyline Medical Center where he was in physical therapy for seven days.

In total, Shorter’s time battling and rehabilitating from the novel coronavirus was over a month – and he said he still has more recovery left.

“I’m having double vision from my time in the coma.” said Shorter.

Though Shorter has more rehabilitation left, he said he’s grateful to be alive and wants others to take serious precautions as the state continues reopening.

“Take it serious, you see everybody running around with no masks and in and out of stores treating it like this is just going to be another flu.”

His wife, Mikki, was also diagnosed with COVID-19 but was able to treat the disease at home.

She said her husband’s journey highlights how some of the symptoms that can arise from COVID-19 seem to target people at random.

“If this could happen to him, it could happen to anybody,” she said.

Neither spouse has any underlying health conditions.

“It was crippling to me and I have no underlying health issues. There’s no reason it should’ve hit me that hard, but it did,” said Shorter.

When speaking of the healthcare workers that helped him during his illness and subsequent recovery, Shorter’s eyes began to water, “they’re part of the big family now.”