>> reporting from home tonight. next a special edition of this is "nightline." >> tonight, the critical machines breathing life into the fight against covid-19. how one young father credits a ventilator for helping bring him back from the brink. >> i owe my life to a ventilator. >> but now as we enter our most crucial weeks, some hospitals are sounding the alarm. plus, parents of children with special needs facing new challenges during life under quarantine.the lessons they are and what their families can teach all of us. and sweet embrace. a light at the end of the tunnel. >> announcer: "nightline" starts right now, with byron pitts. good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight, the somber milestone. here in the u.s. more than

10,000 dead from covid-19. as officials warn the country, there will be long and hard days and nights ahead. the brunt of which will be shouldered by our health care workers. and to do the job they need the right tools. for many that means ventilators. machines that are saving lives. and yet for some hospitals are in dangerously short supply. >> here he comes. >> reporter: for david lat, watching his 2-year-old boy play is a blessing he nearly lost. >> one of the things you just take for granted until you have something like this. >> reporter: a second chance of sorts for the 44-year-old attorney. after covid-19 left him on a ventilator for six days, his life teetering on the brink of death, he's now re-emerging. our president has called this a war, and so as one of the people to fall early in that war and get back up, as they say in the military, welcome home. >> hey, thank you. it's good to be back. >> reporter: a return he says that he owes to the machine that helped him breathe when he couldn't. a ventilator.

>> i wouldn't be here if i wasn't able to be connected to that life-saving device. it's not perfect. a lot of people don't survive. but oh, gosh. it's an amazing device. and we need more of them. >> reporter: but as the country approaches the predicted apex of the coronavirus pandemic -- >> the next week is going to be our pearl harbor moment. it's going to be our 9/11 moment. >> reporter: -- many are sounding the alarm about the prospect of running out of the devices. >> we have about six days of ventilators in our stockpile. >> we're looking anywhere and everywhere across the wo ventil. >> more ventilators. there are a lot of people dying. the virus is everywhere. >> reporter: it was less than a month ago when the two-time new york marathon runner began feeling some of the symptoms of covid-19, fatigue and losing his sense of taste. >> i didn't really think it was coronavirus.

i kind of thought oh, it's probably just the -- you know, a cold or flu or something. but over the next few days the symptoms got worse. >> reporter: then came the fever, the chills, the aches. and when he began feeling shortness of breath on march 15th he headed to the e.r. but did not get tested for covid-19. >> they told me we can't give it to you because as you know the cdc guidelines are pretty strict and we just didn't have enough tests. but they essentially sent me home. >> reporter: when his symptoms worsened the following day, barely able to walk or stand, he was admitted to the hospital. but a few days later a harrowing turn. developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. >> i don't think i realized how bad i had it. i was just in my hospital bed on this friday night and my lungs were filling with fluid. my oxygen levels were dropping. >> reporter: when it became impossible for him to breathe doctors turned to a ventilator for help. >> the scariest moment was actually the intubation, when

they were giving me anesthesia to put me to sleep so they could put a tube in my mouth that would enable me to breathe. i just remember thinking that i might die. when i was on that table and they were injecting me with the anesthesia i just thought no, i don't want to go. >> reporter: through it all the hospital prohibiting any visitors. his husband, zac, forced to way for news back at home. in that moment you thought your husband might die. >> yes. god forbid, without david raising a 2 1/2-year-old as a single father -- because i was in our apartment. and so i just kept looking around. and of course everything reminded me of david. >> reporter: the decision to put him on a vent lailtor, david says, saved his life. dr. luko danho oversaw his care. >> the ventilator was key probably to his recovery. we wouldn't have made that decision lightly. putting someone on a ventilator is a decision we all think about.

he was definitely someone who needed it. >> ventilators are not a cure-all but david is living proof that they can keep someone alive. >> reporter: for those states and hospitals in short supply their pleas answered. at least in part. from oregon governor kate brown sending 140 ventilators to new york. >> if any of the ventilators we send can be used to save one life, then it's worth it. >> reporter: governor cuomo also announcing the shipment from the chinese government of 1,000 donated ventilators to his state. >> i mean, everyone ore here has covid-19. >> reporter: in this brooklyn hospital dr. john marshall, chairman of emergency medicine, says they get a new patient every 14 minutes. >> we had to move our entire triage area outside. it gave us additional space inside to see patients and also gave us the opportunity t identify whether a patient should go to the hospital, whether they should go to the cold zoeb.

>> reporter: abc news got rare access inside the mimon diaz medical center. >> we're work under the assumption every patient has covid at 19. >> reporter: he spent time as a medic in afghanistan but he says this virus has taken a toll like nothing others experienced. >> you're seeing what feels like a whole emergency environment that's almost arranged around isolation. society's never going to be exactly the same as it was. >> reporter: in baton rouge, louisiana nurse morgan babin at our lady of the lake regional medical center is increasingly more worried about their ventilator supply. >> so there's like 50 covid patients that are requiring vents right now, and we have 81 confirmed positives at our hospital in baton rouge. hopefully, we don't run out. >> reporter: dr. christopher b. thomas is a doctor at her hospital and shares her concern. >> patients that are positive or under investigation is around 200. 40% of those patients are indeed on ventilators. >> reporter: his fellow doctor katherine o'neil adds that in terms of supplies their hospital is one of the lucky ones.

at least for now. >> we normally have about 90 icu beds. we're at 100 now. so we are at our max icu capacity on a normal day. and we can get up to 20 more but that will be definitely not something we've ever seen before. it's more about a marathon, right? >> for laypeople like myself in this fight against covid-19 how vital are ventilators? >> it's absolutely essential for me to have them. but almost as essential as that is for the laypeople to understand that being at home, washing your hands, and at this point essentially staying at home are just as critical. and if they don't stay home, then the amount of ventilators i need will go up. you now are a health care provider. >> in this fight we all have a job. >> reporter: for dr. thomas, a father of two, this virus became an opportunity to teach his children what he calls their greatest lesson. >> what i told them is there's always a time in each of our lives where you need to be kind. and just like we told you to

always be kind to other children it's important for me to be kind to everyone i signed up to take. >> reporter: meanwhile, this virus continuing to ravage, taking the lives of too many too soon. in the u.s. the death toll has now risen to over 10,000. there's francis back boccabella iii of new jersey who was the first tsa record on record to duyst disease. detective marylou armer of santa rosa, california. sandra santos vizcaino the first school teacher in new york city to die. and marybelth papetti, aunt of steve baker. but for all the souls lost, hearts broken dr. o'neal reminds us science and statistics tell us there will be more. >> our nation passed a grim marker today. more than 10,000 people in our country have died of covid-19. but those are 10,000 individual stories, 10,000 different families. >> right.

the 10,000 doesn't bother me as much as the bother that it's going to get so much worse than that when all of these small towns start seeing their peak at the same time and we're already as full as we can get. if i had to guess, we're going to look at 10,000 and wish we could go back to that day. >> reporter: for david lat as he moves forward it's been prayer that he's leaned on. >> i will admit we should always be praying but i have to admit i prayed a lot more in these past few weeks than usual. >> reporter: in times like these the soul often heals faster than the body. what's the road to recovery look like for you now that you're home? >> one of the things about the ventilator is when it's working and you're on it it's breathing for you. and so your lungs are almost forgetting how to breathe. so i get very short of breath. i'll walk across a room. i'll be panting. my heart rate will go over 100. it's tough. you just have to get used to it. >> reporter: i might imagine

that there may be some families watching tonight who are right now in the space your family was in. what might you say to them? >> i heard from a lot of people on twitter, for instance, who have loved ones that are on ventilators. and i tell them, look, hang in there. be hopeful. i'm living proof that these devices work and they save lives. and there are no guarantees, but be hopeful. up next -- the challenges and lessons learned from parenting children with special needs during the pandemic. y ozes helping many people with type 2 diabetes like james lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! (announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds.

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>> which way do we go? >> boo. >> reporter: for 10-year-old mariah winchell, who has autism and down's syndrome, life under quarantine is anything but routine. >> do you want to -- let's go show your schedule. >> reporter: like many parents these days mariah's are trying to keep learning on track. >> word of the day yesterday was bacteria. >> reporter: mom melissa behind the camera points out the science experiments growing yeast by the board games. the living room now home to mariah's cardboard rocket ship and sentence diagrams. >> how concerned are you that her development, her socialization is going to be set back in a big way? >> i'm really concerned. >> reporter: for parents with special needs children life in a pandemic comes without many of the usual supports. those home health aides, therapists, coaches, teachers, and most of all routine. >> a lot of our routines have changed. you guys are clearly stressed. a lot of anxiety. >> reporter: single dad rob

gorseky of canton, ohio says he's been overwhelmed. >> i'm a dad to three autistic kids. and my oldest is medically fragile. so one of the things that he has right now is a compromised immune system. >> reporter: 20-year-old son gavin in the middle there shows off his pumpford gene infusions to boost his immunity. >> it's pretty stressful worrying about trying to keep him healthy and safe by not exposing him to anything really. >> reporter: the gorskis haven't left the house for 30 days, testing their patience with each other and their communication skills. >> always try to find ways to stay relaxed and stay calm. >> stick with your parents. like we stick with our dad. and he's the best dad we could ever have. and if you see him right now, he's blushing. >> how are you doing with this being at home? >> i'm good. >> you're good? do you miss your friends? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> reporter: single mother opal foster of southern maryland also

worries about the impact of isolation on her son jeremiah who hass down syndrome. >> there's a lot of things that they're used to in their regular routine that they're not going to be getting. we're working on kind of getting a zoom or skype meeting together so you guys can see each other. >> reporter: and after losing her job at a printing company last month, foster now wonders whether they'll stay financially afloat. >> i would love to say that everything will go back to normal tomorrow and we'll snap our fingers and everything will be back just the way that it was, but it won't. >> reporter: another glimpse of the new challenges around a dining room table in washington, d.c. >> danny is medically fragile. so the virus itself would be pretty devastating to him. >> reporter: megan scully and chris debot now full-time caregivers for their 4-year-old son danny who has a rare brain disorder putting him at increased risk from covid-19. >> one of the fights for us is keeping the front line for us here at home instead of possibly

having to go to the hospital. >> reporter: as we talk outside, danny's 2-year-old brother elliott inside, keeping that distance as older brother sam tells us he's worried. >> are you afraid of the disease? >> a little. because like what if bean catches it like or what if i catch it? if i catch it i would probably have to stay in my room all day. maybe for two weeks. and like i wouldn't get to see him at all. >> reporter: danny was just beginning to learn how to communicate when the pandemic closed his school. >> we are home-schooling a second-grader and we are trying to get danny's therapies in to the best that we can but we just can't replicate what they can do at school. >> reporter: and you're holding down two full-time jobs at the same time. >> that's right. yes. >> so we're ending the three-hour shift here. mariah and i wrote a story today. >> reporter: same for melissa winchell toggling between daycare and a day job, a full-time university professor still lecturing, grading papers

and advising hundreds of students. among them now mariah, who's still struggling to understand all that loss of normalcy. >> the grief almost feels fresh to them every day, almost like they're reexperiencing it all over for the first time. so we're having a lot of just daily crying. >> reporter: how do you explain to her what a pandemic is? >> i taught her the word coronavirus. she knows the word covid-19. it's to the point now that she calls it stupid coronavirus. >> reporter: the stress many parents say is relentless. >> the lack of adult contact is pretty challenging. i love my kids, and if i had to be on lockdown with anybody it's my kids. so i'm glad i have them. but it does sort of take its toll. i don't think so much about how to get through it. i just -- i just know that my kids are relying on me and i have to do whatever i have to do. >> i am on the couch for the second time since noontime today because i am just so tired.

>> reporter: often exhausted but still resilient. >> i think the sense that nothing is permanent, that life's not a given, that life's so fragile, that's i think what disabled families know. and i think that's the wisdom that we're bringing into the experience of quarantine and into covid. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm devon dwyer in washington. and next -- the major milestone and major surprise. cancer won't wait. it won't wait for a convenient time or for hospitals to get back to normal again. that's why, at cancer treatment centers of america, we aren't waiting. we're right here, still focused on the only thing we do, providing world-class cancer care, all under one roof.

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and finally tonight, fighting tears of joy after the fight of her life. that's 47-year-old christina pause, surviving covid-19 and receiving a sweet send-off from the staff at staten island university hospital. fighting the virus for more than two weeks away from family all that time. until everything hits home.

[ applause ] a long-awaited hug from her husband there at the finish line. congrats to christina and her family. it was winston churchill who said, "victory at all costs. victory in spite of terror. victory however long and hard the road may be. for without victory there is no survival." that's "nightline" for this evening. you can watch our full episodes on hulu. jimmy kimmel is next. thanks for the company, america. good night. ♪ pa, da, pa, pa, da, da, pa ♪ pa, da, pa, apa, da, pa ♪ jimmy kimmel live >> from his house! >> jimmy: thank you, thank you. hi, i'm jimmy. i'm the host of this poorly attended house party.

welcome to day i don't know of sheltering in place. i stopped keeping track of the date after we cut the calendar into strips of toilet paper. but i hope you had a good weekend. as if these weeks ever really end. it's funny. now we finally know how radio shack felt. things are getting a little bit tense at my house. last night i told my wife i want to see other people. she got upset and i said, "no, i just want to see some other people." so she's on tinder now. the one thing i know is that once this is over, i'm never hanging out with myself again. restaurants are getting hit very hard right now, but many are doing what they can to stay in business and feed people in their neighborhoods. a restaurant owner in east hollywood not far from where we are came one a creative way to serve customers. her place is called calabama and they are now serving from her fourth floor apartment. what she's doing is she's making these sandwiches and lowering them down from the fire escape