TORONTO -- Julie Lingan, a 39-year-old mother of four-year-old twins, has become an unlikely hero in the war on COVID-19.

Despite being young and healthy, the Ontario woman spent the last month in hospital and two weeks on a ventilator in a medically induced coma.

In early March, before her dramatic battle for life, the stay-at-home mother was more concerned about her husband鈥檚 health. He had a cough, sore throat and fever.

鈥淢y husband was getting more and more sick, so he went to the hospital,鈥 Lingan remembers. Mark was diagnosed with COVID-19, and was sent home to self-isolate. Almost immediately, she also developed symptoms: 鈥淚 had a dry cough, and my fever was 40 degrees.鈥

Lingan鈥檚 condition deteriorated so quickly that by the time she got to Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ont., she no longer had enough oxygen to even speak. 鈥淚t just kept getting worse and worse,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t felt like I was suffocating -- worse than suffocating, my lips were turning blue.鈥

Within 48 hours, the ICU team made the decision that Lingan鈥檚 body could no longer breathe on its own.

鈥淚t's safe to say without being overly dramatic that she would not have survived,鈥 ICU Dr. Barry Nathanson says. 鈥淪he was as sick as somebody can be.鈥

A team of dozens of intensive care staff prepared to put Lingan on a ventilator, a treatment with a distressingly low survival rate. One of her nurses recalls helping Lingan make a final video call to her family at home. 鈥淚 was in the room prior to her being put to sleep and being intubated,鈥 says nurse Lindsey McNabb. 鈥淛ust before we put her to sleep, we FaceTimed her husband and her kids. I was fighting back tears.鈥

Lingan remembers the terror of wondering if she would ever see her family again: 鈥淲hen they were about to put me to sleep, I was thinking about my twins鈥one has] autism. So I was thinking who will take care of them when I am gone?鈥

After two long weeks, she was removed from the ventilator and has slowly been recovering.

鈥淚t's been a nightmare,鈥 Lingan says. 鈥淎 tough road. I don鈥檛 have the words to describe my journey with the COVID virus.鈥

On Thursday, exactly one month after being admitted, she became the first ventilated COVID-19 patient at Southlake Regional Health Centre to make it out alive. Doctors and nurses lined the hallways to 鈥渃lap her out,鈥 as Lingan was wheeled through the hospital.

鈥淪he came in desperately ill,鈥 Nathanson says. 鈥淎nd is leaving with her future ahead of her. And how much more powerful can modern medicine be? That's what we show up for every day.鈥

Holding back tears, McNabb says: 鈥淚t鈥檚 emotional and overwhelming. It brings tears to my eyes that she's going home to her family. I couldn't ask for a better day.鈥

Lingan鈥檚 husband, who has fully recovered, and her twins, who never developed the disease, were waiting outside the hospital to take her home.

鈥淚t's heaven for me,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 miss them a lot. They're my life. I have a second chance at life.鈥