What does coronavirus feel like? Here are stories from US survivors of the pandemic
From a woman whose symptoms started with a fever, to a man who said he was an inch from death, coronavirus survivors have begun speaking out about the worldwide pandemic.
There are now more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Many of those patients have begun recovering from the disease.
Elizabeth Schneider
A Seattle woman in her mid 30s, Schneider initially began feeling symptoms after attending a party, she wrote on Facebook. She had a headache, fever, severe body aches and joint pain and severe fatigue, she wrote.
“I had a fever that spiked the first night to 103 degrees and eventually came down to 100 and then low grade 99.5,” she said.
Her fever subsided around March 6 — 10 days after she began feeling symptoms, she wrote. She said she did not go to the hospital because she was recovering on her own.
Schneider is no longer isolating herself after surpassing the seven-day guideline recommended by her local King County Public Health Department.
“However I am avoiding strenuous activity and large crowds and I will obviously will not come near you if I see you in public,” she said.
Marc Thibault
A vice principal at Saint Raphael Academy in Rhode Island, Thibault was diagnosed with COVID-19 after leading a school field trip to Italy, France and Spain, according to WJAR.
He told The Wall Street Journal that while he used hand sanitizer often during the trip last month, he shared a microphone with a man who was becoming ill. On Feb. 27 — five days after he returned home — he was admitted to the hospital.
The illness hit him “like a hurricane” and he struggled with feeling like he was choking, he told the Journal.
“You feel like you’re asphyxiating, and you’re panicking because you can’t breathe,” he said.
Thibault added to the newspaper that he was “one inch from death.”
The vice principal remains in intensive care, but he has made “tremendous improvements,” school principal Dan Richard told WJAR.
“He is starting to show signs of his old self,” Richard said.
Jerri Jorgensen
Jorgensen said on Fox News she felt no symptoms when she was diagnosed with COVID-19 while on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. She said she hadn’t been sick in 30 years, but she took the news in stride.
“I never felt any fear. I was well taken care of,” Jorgensen told Fox News. “Nobody spoke English. None of the doctors or nurses spoke English. It was all Google Translate. It was interesting. We got really good at charades.”
Now back in Utah and recovering, Jorgensen said she is “laying low” after receiving threats back home.
“I don’t think anyone’s going to say, ‘I’m going to come to your house and slit your throat,’ but they are saying, ‘stay away, you better not ever be around me or my family or I will hurt you,” Jorgensen told St. George News.
She told the publication that doctors told her she poses no threat to anyone now that she has recovered from the disease. Her husband, who also was infected with the coronavirus, is quarantined in Utah.
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Others are still battling the virus and are sharing stories of their bouts with COVID-19.
James Chi
A 32-year-old physician’s assistant who lives in New Jersey, Chi began feeling sick after he attended a medical conference in New York City, he told WFMZ. He went to the ER and quickly learned he had caught the coronavirus, according to WFMZ.
Chi was the first confirmed coronavirus case in New Jersey, WFMZ reported.
“It happened so quick,” said Chi, who added to CBS News that he believes in wearing masks to prevent the spread. Health experts advise only those who are infected with the virus or those treating sick patients wear face masks.
The virus has spread to both of his lungs, Chi said. He remains in isolation, away from his wife and daughter, according to WFMZ.
Carl Goodman
The owner of a radio station in California, Goldman was quarantined on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, and now he’s at the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, according to NBC News.
“I have to be tested three days in a row of being negative in order to be released,” he told NBC News. “The test is pretty elaborate. They stick a swab deep into each nostril and also deep down the throat. Five seconds each. Not a fun process.”
The 67-year-old Goldman told KQED he didn’t feel ill until a plane ride home from the cruise quarantine, when his fever spiked to 103. He was then taken to the Nebraska facility.
“It’s just kind of funny,” Goldman told KQED. “Who would’ve thought my 67th birthday would’ve been in the biocontainment center in Omaha?”
He has chronicled his coronavirus journey on his station’s website and has now had the illness for more than a month.
“I will not have this virus forever. I am just a slow shredder,” Goldman wrote Tuesday. He said he has no symptoms other than still testing positive, and even his prolonged cough is almost gone.
