Joe Trejo was hooked up to a ventilator in the intensive care unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton. At the time, he wasn’t able to communicate with his wife or their three sons. Then, something unexpected happened.

A mariachi band played the couple’s favorite song in the parking lot, and they were able to play the song through a smartphone. Trejo subtly responded.

“I know he heard me, and I know he heard the music,” Trejo’s wife, Patty, told the LA Times, referring to ‘La Mano de Dios’ (‘The Hand of God’). Aurelio Reyes el Gallo de Chiapas performed, a trio of mariachis she hired, the LA Times reports.

“When I was talking to him, he actually talked a little bit, and he opened his eyes, and his body moved,” she said. “I started to pray even harder, and he opened his eyes again…I got to put my arms around him and [hold] his hand, and I got to kiss him.”

Trejo has been in the hospital for a month with COVID-19, battling pneumonia complications after being placed on a ventilator. The same day Trejo was placed on a ventilator, Patty’s 95-year-old father, Epie Rios, died from COVID-19 complications.

The family, including the couple’s three sons, also had the coronavirus and recovered. While they know that Trejo is not out of danger, they believe he will pull through.

Patty expressed to the LA Times that her husband isn’t one to want to be the center of attention, but the reason she went public with his illness was so she could enlist the help of new “prayer warriors.”

She knows that each day her husband stays on the ventilator, the odds of recovery diminish.

“I know they say if he’s not off it after 10 days, the chances are slim,” Patty said. “But I say, OK, it takes time to heal, and I’ve seen miracles. He will be our miracle.”

Patty is also aware of the power of prayer and what it can do for her husband.

“We’re hoping the pneumonia will get better, and once that gets better, he can start to recover,” she said. “He gives me strength to keep on going and keep in fighting, and I just want to say ‘thank you’ to everybody who has been helping us get through this.”