A professional basketball player who was stranded in South America due to the coronavirus has returned home to Milford.

Timajh Parker-Rivera is a power forward for the International Basketball Federation and had been playing in South America for the past three months. He tried to get a flight home last week, but his visa expired and couldn't get the issue fixed because the embassy in Chile was shut down.

But Parker-Rivera got a high-ranking local official who he met by chance in the airport to get him a special waiver to leave the country.

MORE: COVID-19 pandemic leaves Connecticut basketball pro stranded in South America 

"I'm happy that I'm here during this time with my family because that's all I wanted," says Parker-Rivera. "I was over there and I was stuck and all I could think about was my family."

The former St. Joseph's High School and Towson University athlete finally got a flight out of Santiago on Friday, and after a stop-over in Toronto, arrived in Connecticut Saturday night.

"It was just like, when you're stuck in another country you're like, well, you know this is not my country, I didn't know the language, I couldn't talk to anybody, I couldn't, so you know just to be back -- it's feels amazing," he says.

Timajh's mother Diedra extended thanks to News 12 Connecticut and reporter Frank Recchia, saying, "You immediately reached out to me and got our story on the news, and that was important."