A man who became gravely ill after testing positive for COVID-19 while vacationing in Mexico with his family has been airlifted back to Louisiana, WBRZ reported. Yolanda Comager said her husband, David, and two daughters were initially blocked from boarding their return flight home to Baton Rouge because they tested positive.

Comager and one of her other daughters, who didn't test positive, returned home and searched for ways to get their family back to their country. The distraught mother then booked a bus for her family, realizing that they don't need a negative test to travel by land from Mexico to the U.S. Comager's plan was to pick up her husband and two daughters from El Paso, Texas, when the bus arrived. 

But David's condition worsened while he was on the bus. 

“I was here two hours ahead of them, and then I got a phone call from my daughter saying that my husband was on the bus and he could not breathe,” Comager said. 

David was then taken to a hospital in Chihuahua, Mexico, a few hours from the border. The frightened father expressed his fears while communicating with his family from the hospital.

"He said, I don't know what's going to happen, but I just need you to know that I love you,' and I said I love you, too," Comager said.

The concerned mother and her daughter also tested positive a few days later and checked into a hospital in El Paso to quarantine. The other girls eventually tested negative and flew home from Mexico.

David remains on a ventilator while he is said to be in stable condition. Comager and her family, who haven't been vaccinated, are now left with a large hospital bill, which their insurance is refusing to cover. The family estimates that they have already spent at least $15,000 out of pocket.

"He called me in tears because he said that the hospital was refusing to treat him, and they kicked him out of the hospital because he didn't have $12,000 to continue treatments," said Comager, who has launched a GoFundMe page to get help with the expenses.

According to Healthline, the Delta variant is contributing to a spike in COVID-19 across the country, but especially in places such as Florida, Texas and Louisiana. As the surge continues, hospitals are approaching their capacity and struggling to provide care for people with the most serious illnesses.

The number of overall COVID-19 cases in the country rose about 18 percent last week compared with the previous week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC adds that cases, hospitalizations and deaths particularly continue to increase in areas with higher levels of community transmission and lower vaccination coverage.

Baton Rouge, LouisianaCovid-19COVID-19-vaccinemexicoYolanda Comager