After spending days in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Frederick Henry has recovered from the highly infectious respiratory disease which he said caused him to experience the most “miserable” days of his life.
“The experience, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone but I am glad that I had that experience so that I know what I can share with others,” Henry told Sunday Stabroek in an interview.
Forty-year-old Henry, a resident of D’Aguiar’s Park, East Bank Demerara, is one of the 12 persons who have recovered from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to date.
Up to yesterday, the Ministry of Public Health said that the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 was 74, with eight deaths.
Henry lives with his wife and three children. Prior to him being tested positive, Henry, who has Type-2 diabetes, shared his home with his eldest child, who is 14-years-old, while his wife and two other children are currently in New York.
Henry’s wife gave birth to their third son on April 9. He told the Sunday Stabroek that he was scheduled to travel there but was unable to after authorities closed the main ports of entry as part of COVID-19 measures.
His eldest child has since been tested. While the results initially came back inconclusive, a subsequent test was negative.
To date, Henry remains unsure about how or where he contracted the disease. “I have absolutely no idea where I would have got it from. My schedule basically allows me when I get up from home to work, work (to) home,” he said.
For Henry, the symptoms began on the afternoon of March 20 as he was about to leave work. Henry is an employee attached to Banks DIH Limited. “I wasn’t feeling well. I kinda know something was wrong because when I sneeze I kinda felt this pain coming up my back…..that is the normal feeling I would get on the onset of a flu, so I just played it down and said you know maybe I am getting the flu and I got to go home and probably take something for it early,” Henry related.
He said he went home and took two Panadol pills before retiring to bed. “I initially thought was the normal flu. I took the medication, I went to bed—my normal routine—and throughout that night I was getting fever for that night but after that night I hadn’t that fever anymore. Throughout this entire COVID experience, that was the only night I had a fever actually, even though the fever was one of the main symptoms that you would had experienced,” he said.
However, later that night and throughout the weekend, Henry said he began to experience additional symptoms “I started to feel a bit weak and I was taking stuff for that also but nothing worked. It was just usually regular stuff like you know to keep myself hydrated. Sunday night I was like Monday is coming and work and stuff, I didn’t want to take any chances,” Henry added.
Self-isolation
As a result, Henry said he decided to reach out to the COVID hotline. He said after several calls to the numbers listed on the advertisement went unanswered, he eventually got through.
“They basically ran me through the routine interview I guess…Asked me if I was in contact, if I travelled anywhere recently, if I was in contact with anybody that travelled anywhere recently, that sort of thing. Asked me what kind of symptoms I was getting and they took all the information. Asked who I was living with and so on,” Henry related.
Before the process was completed, Henry said that he was promised to have a call returned to him later the week. He was also advised to isolate himself. “They said that they were going to call me back during the week but they advised to isolate myself, stay home for the next 14 days,” he said.
Henry added that he immediately emailed his supervisor to inform him about the development and he was told to “stay put”.
During this period, Henry explained that he visited the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) about three times. “Some-body told me that there was a tent on the Middle Street entrance and there is a tent on East Street….Anyways, I got there. I went with my mask and stuff because I don’t know what was going on,” he said.
Up to this point, Henry noted, he was unaware that he had COVID-19. “I wasn’t feeling well. At that point, I wasn’t coughing, the fever wasn’t there but it’s just that I was feeling really weak,” he added.
Henry was screened at the Middle Street tent before he was referred to the one at East Street. “I went round to the East Street tent and I was interviewed again by another set of doctors…but this time, the doctors just didn’t send me home, they give me some medications, some antibiotic and some Vitamin C and stuff and they provided me with a medical certificate for my job,” he further explained.
Henry further stated that although he returned home and used the medication, he wasn’t feeling any improvement. “By that weekend, things were getting a bit worse. The coughing start to come on by the Friday (March 27th) and that’s when I started to, you know, get worried,” he said.
According to Henry, he was worried about both his condition deteriorating and whether he had COVID-19. “I was worried that I am getting worse and I am not getting any treatment or nobody, they probably not taking it seriously,” he said.
Breathing hard
Later the said day, Henry said, he returned to the East Street tent. “This time I really started breathing hard. I was getting cold sweat and stuff,” he said.
Whilst there he said he had a chest x-ray and was placed on oxygen. “…The x-ray was one of those instant things, they got it back right away. When they did get it back and check it…they said that something wasn’t right. They mentioned that they noticed a bit of irregularity so the doctor there called the internal medicine section, I think the head of the COVID unit and the doctor came down and checked it out. She was kind of skeptical but she said we will have to schedule a swab for me but not now maybe in the new week. She advised to just go home, stay safe and continue taking the meds and so on,” Henry explained.
Henry followed the doctors’ advice and went back home. “I couldn’t sleep at all, I was like you know tossing and turning….It was really, really hard. One of the other things is that I couldn’t eat also because I didn’t had any appetite. I couldn’t taste anything. Nothing was going down,” he recalled.
On March 28th, Henry said his condition worsened. “I was still getting all the symptoms and so on. I was advised by my sister, who was talking to one of her doctor friends. They advised me to go back to East Street tent and let them know you are not well again,” Henry said.
As such, Henry returned the said night. “I was trying to not to go because I was still on the medication but I realised that you know what, going there won’t cost me anything…they saw my condition basically. I was visibly shaking and sweating. It was real discomfort and I had the same breathing issues…I was really pulling for air,” Henry noted.
“The [nurses] called the doctor and asked for her advice and she said to let me come back in the morning because apparently they had gotten the testing kit approved and they had scheduled some testing for Sunday [March 29]. So instead of waiting until the next week, they told me to come back Sunday morning to be tested,” he added.
“Most miserable” seconds
Taking all precautions, Henry said, he was transported to the hospital on the morning of March 29 by a friend and upon arrival he was the first to be swabbed.
He described the swabbing as the “most miserable” seconds of his life. “The testing is probably the most miserable seconds of my life. It’s very uncomfortable but I know I had to get it done,” Henry related.
Upon completion of the test, Henry explained that he returned home to wait on the results which was due the following day.
However, he said his breathing problems got worse and was accompanied by a cough. “Sunday night (March 29th) pass miserable again but Monday the coughing really came on and breathing issues had increased,” Henry said.
The situation got to a stage that Henry’s sister had to purchase an oxygen tank for him.
On the afternoon of March 30, he recalled receiving a call informing him that he was tested positive for COVID-19. “The doctors called sometime during the course of the afternoon and said that the test came back positive and the ambulance will be coming to pick me up within three hours,” Henry said.
“I waited. I was on the oxygen, off the oxygen…the ambulance came, the guy called my phone and said ‘We are downstairs, we are waiting,’ I can come down. Anyway my bags was already packed. My son packed some stuff for me. I took off the oxygen tank, remove the respirator and I moved to like 5 feet away to pick up my bag and I couldn’t. That was probably the worst feeling I had ever. Literally I couldn’t breathe. It’s like I was gasping for air and I was coughing at the same time. It’s like I couldn’t move. I had to literally throw myself down and put things in perspective and said you know ‘aye, you got to calm down’. It was tough. That period was tough,” he explained.
He said that he asked his son to inform the medical attendants that he would be down shortly. “I gathered myself, I picked up my bag and I made my way downstairs. I was really gasping for air,” he said.
Henry went into the ambulance, which was supposed to pick up some other persons. However, because of his condition, there was a change in plans and he was escorted to the facility at Diamond.
Upon arrival there, he was immediately placed on oxygen. “When I was there, they put me on the oxygen tank, the ambulance left and went and got the other people and so on and bring them back. But that took like an hour and a half, two hours. I was on the oxygen tank for about two hours I would assume,” Henry recalled.
After assessing his condition, doctors transferred Henry to the COVID ICU at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). “They said I can’t be at Diamond, this is a GPH case. So the doctor came back with a portable oxygen tank, collected me and I went down to GPH ICU,” he said.
“Fight this thing somehow”
Henry was hospitalised for a period of three weeks- from March 30th to April 20th. He spent the first two nights in the COVID ICU.
While admitted in the ICU, Henry said his bed was situated next to Jermain Ifill, the second person who died as a result of COVID-19 in the country.
This, according to Henry, allowed him a firsthand experience of Ifill’s struggle. “I saw the struggle that he went through and I was like I don’t think I could go through this and you know you start getting a lot of thoughts in your mind but I was still positive,” Henry said.
At this point, Henry said the first thought that crossed his mind was his family. “I was in contact with them and I told them about what I was seeing and they … encourage me to just get my rest. You are there to recover not to take on any other thing,” he noted.
Henry explained that witnessing Ifill’s experience had allowed him to convince himself that he had “got to fight this thing somehow”. “Knowing fully well that currently there is no cure, the most I could do being a person of faith is turn my situation over to the father and that is what I did…” he said.
By the morning of April 1st, Henry said his breathing problems had subsided. “I was breathing but the doctors were trying to bring him (Ifill) back but that didn’t work,” he recalled.
Henry said he along with another patient were moved to another area of the hospital, where he remained warded until his discharge. “We were in that room from like from the 1st of April up to until when I came out,” Henry said.
Whilst hospitalised, he said he was being administered antibiotics for a period and Vitamins.
He said his medications for the other conditions were being supplemented in his treatment. “Whilst you were there they were also monitoring any other issues that you would have had. For me, I am a diabetic. I have Type 2 diabetes so they were monitoring that also. So they were supplementing my diabetic medication and they were monitoring that….My blood pressure was going up and coming down so they were giving me a medication for that also,” he related.
‘Totally devastated”
Throughout the entire period, Henry said the thought of not recovering crossed his mind numerous times and he was even fearful that he would never be able to reunite with his family again.
He explained that he was “totally devastated” after the second test returned positive and he learnt that he had to be further quarantined. “When I did my second test, I was upbeat about finally getting to go back home to my son but after waiting for a few days and receiving the news that the results came back positive and I had to be in there, in quarantine, for another possible 14 days I was totally devastated,” Henry said.
“I cried, I called my wife and broke the news to her. I was in tears most of that day, the thought of not recovering from this crossed my mind, that I may not see my family again, I may not see or hold my baby boy who was only born a few days before…For that day and night, I did have my doubts of surviving this, but I continued to pray along with my family,” he added.
According to Henry, the entire COVID-19 experience has made him change his perspective on how he operates while outdoor, particularly with people.
Although Henry has recovered and can now enjoy the comfort of his home, he said he has precautions which he has to follow since there is a possibility that he can be infected again. “When I came home, I got this sense of anxiety came over me. I was kind of nervous. Just about dealing with everything at home and the precautions that you got to take,” he said.
Henry related that while he his feeling better, he now has to focus on strengthening himself. “I am feeling better, far better than when I went in. I am not feeling ill but this feeling of you know you got to take this extra precaution and so on it kind of gets to you sometimes but all in all I am really happy that everything went how it went…,” Henry stated.
For now, Henry said he will be home for another two weeks. “This is not to just to stay inside and things like this. This is just so that my body can recover fully and I can be in a decent state,” he said.
Henry explained that in light of the stigma attached to the services provided at the GPH, he went into the hospital without knowing what to expect.
Luckily, he said he was provided with the right level of health care needed to recover. “I think the nurses and the doctors in that unit they did an excellent job. They worked above and beyond…they were all very professional in what they were doing…I see the doctors work with the resources that they have and they have done extremely well in those circumstances,” Henry said.
Henry advised persons to take the necessary precautions and follow the guidelines in an effort to avoid contracting COVID-19.
“COVID-19 is not something to be taken lightly. It’s really deadly because I have seen personally the effects of it on people. Follow the country’s guidelines. Stay at home. If you got to go out, stay your distance. Wear your mask, wear gloves, take every possible extreme precaution that you could possibly take. People might laugh at you, they might think you are a bit extreme but at the end of the day it’s your life that you got to take care of,” Henry said.