Unvaccinated Bridgeport man who almost died of COVID-19 urges community to get the shot

An unvaccinated Bridgeport man who almost died after contracting COVID-19 is urging those who have not received their shots to get inoculated.
When 44-year-old Stevenson Bruno was hospitalized back in December, he thought he would be home in a day or two -- a week at the most.
But the successful businessman says he had a serious and sudden decline and eventually slipped into a coma.
He ended up staying in the hospital's intensive care unit for almost a month.
"I went into a room with four patients. I'm the only one who made it," Bruno says. "I almost died from COVID. I know a lot of minorities just do not want to get vaccinated."
Stevenson says, like many people in communities of color,
he was simply not convinced the COVID-19 vaccine was either safe or necessary, so before he got sick, he had made a deliberate decision not to get the shot.
As a result, Stevenson says, he almost died at Saint Vincent's Medical Center.
Now, Stevenson says he believes in the vaccine and wishes he had taken a full course of it before he contracted the virus.
"Just look at my story and hopefully you can make the best decision for yourself and your family members, which is more important if you have children," he says. "I was one of the folks who were not for it -- and look what happened to me."
"Stevenson is offering some real-life experience," says Sen. Richard Blumenthal and adds that by sharing his story Stevenson is helping to create a path forward for the public health community at a critical juncture. "A teaching moment for people: Get the vaccination. It's a matter of life and death."
Now as Stevenson works to get back into the normal routine of life, he says he's grateful for his successful business, his beautiful family, and most of all, for being alive and well and on the road to a full recovery.
"When I came out of the coma and I heard that I was the miracle," Stevenson says. "You know God gives you a gift -- a second gift of life."
Stevenson says he can't get vaccinated for at least a month after recovering from COVID-19, but he's looking forward to getting the shots.
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