HALIFAX -- Rhonda Flemming never thought she would get so sick from COVID-19.
As a massage therapist, she says she has always followed public health precautions carefully.
She also thought because she had no underlying health conditions, she would only experience mild symptoms if she contracted the virus.
Then, she started experiencing COVID-19 symptoms on her 46th birthday in February.
The symptoms got progressively worse. Two days after testing positive, she says, she had to call 911 from her home – something she encourages anyone suffering from the condition to do if needed.
"I just couldn't breathe, I couldn't move," she says. "The ambulance was there within five minutes."
"To be honest, if I hadn’t called the ambulance that night, I probably would have been dead overnight,”:she says.
That ambulance trip was the beginning of five weeks in hospital.
She says she was the only COVID patient in ICU at the Halifax Infirmary when she first arrived, since it was before the start of Nova Scotia’s third wave.
"They had all these different masks on me, the Airvo, which pushes the moist air in through your nostrils," she says. "Plus they had the full mask on me with 100 per cent oxygen."
"And I still felt like I couldn’t breathe," she says. "At one point, I looked at one of the nurses that came in and said, 'I can't do it anymore.'"
Flemming says she asked to be put on a ventilator. She says the healthcare team put her family on the phone - just before she was sedated and vented.
"I wasn't actually scared to be vented, because I knew I had to be," she says. "But, scary to call, and just kind of say, not goodbye, but, more, 'see you later.'"
She spent eight days on a ventilator. Flemming doesn't remember much. but she knows it was hard on her family.
"Because I guess it was really bad, the first few days where I was proned," she says. "I didn’t know that part, so I think they have more trauma dealing with that then myself."
VOICES OF N.S. PATIENTS
Flemming is one of a number of Nova Scotians who've been sharing their experiences with the virus during the third wave, emphasizing how serious it can be.
On Saturday, Halifax singer/songwriter Asif Illyas posted a video update, shortly before going home. He had posted a video message from hospital after being admitted more than a week ago, urging people to continue to follow public health measures.
Illyas became emotional in his most recent message, just after being release from intermediate care.
"As I get better, I can’t help but feel bad for all the people still in here," he says in the video. "I can hear them coughing in the other rooms."
“I wish I had my guitar, so I could go sing them a song," he adds.
'HAVE HOPE'
With 15 patients in IC in Nova Scotia as of late Sunday afternoon, and 11 on ventilators - Flemming says she wants her story to help families worried about their loved ones in hospital.
"Just to have hope, and not everyone in ICU is on a ventilator," she says. "To families that have people in the hospital, it doesn't have to be a death sentence, it's scary and stuff, but a lot of people come out of it."
Flemming had complications after she was extubated. Her throat was paralyzed, and she couldn’t eat or drink. A feeding tube had to be inserted until she could take liquid and soft food again.
After overcoming that obstacle, Flemming came home at the end of March,
She says she has long-term effects: shortness of breath and an increased heart rate, but she hopes that will improve over time.
"Even though it's slow-going, I'm grateful," she says.
She credits healthcare workers, especially the nurses who cared for her, for helping pull her through.
Flemming received her first vaccine dose almost two weeks ago. As the province prepares for re-opening – she says she’s staying cautious, wearing a mask, and staying close to home.
'Have hope': N.S. COVID-19 survivor's message to families of ICU patients - CTV News Atlantic
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