BARRIE -- With tears in her eyes, Judy Carson finally left the hospital after spending 46 days fighting for her life.

The 76-year-old Oro-Medonte woman was on a month-long cruise with her husband of 56 years when several passengers became ill.

The ship was quarantined and unable to dock, turning their vacation into an ordeal.

When the couple finally arrived home, their nightmare was far from over.

Judy and her husband, Reg, had both become infected with COVID-19.

While 80-year-old Reg had only mild symptoms, Judy became very sick.

She was admitted to the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre's respiratory unit in Barrie on April 9, and her condition quickly worsened.

"My husband had received a phone call saying that they should be prepared that I was not making it," she says. "What they must have gone through those days, my husband and my kids. I can't even imagine."

Reg, unable to visit his sick wife, could only wait for news.

Judy was moved into the intensive care unit, where she struggled with the virus as a team of health care professionals constantly tended to her.

"They were all phenomenal. It was like family. Well, it was my family," she says of her experience.

And the staff say Judy was determined.

"After three weeks in the ICU, she was stable enough to return to our unit and spent another three weeks recovering," says Betty Anne Whelan, manager of the Respiratory unit.

After seven weeks in the hospital, Judy was finally ready to go home.

Hospital staff and physicians lined the halls, clapping and cheering as she was wheeled out the hospital doors to her waiting husband on Monday.

"She's an inspiration," says registered nurse, Haley Fleming.

For the Oro-Medonte woman, the people who helped save her life are more than just hospital staff.

"They are heroes. They're certainly my heroes," she says.