CNN host Chris Cuomo revealed the terrifying symptoms he is suffering through as he battles coronavirus, saying he feels like he is being beaten like a pinata, is shivering so badly that he has chipped a tooth and at times is so ill that he feels like he won’t make it through.
Cuomo announced Tuesday that he had tested positive for coronavirus but is continuing to host his nightly show from his basement as he recovers.
On Wednesday evening, he spoke at length about the intensity of his illness saying that his fever has reached such heights that he is hallucinating about speaking to his dead father, Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor.
During his show, Cuomo also spoke to the husband of a New Jersey doctor who died of coronavirus Tuesday in a heartbreaking interview about how the two-time cancer survivor lost his life after putting himself on the front line despite knowing that he was in an at-risk group.
Chris Cuomo is suffering from a fever so severe that he has hallucinated a conversation with his death father, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, as a result of coronavirus
During Wednesday’s show, Cuomo also spoke with the husband of doctor Frank Garbin, a two-time cancer survivor who died of coronavirus Tuesday after putting himself at risk to help
Heartbroken widower Arnold Vargas was unable to hold back tears as he spoke about Garbin
Andrew Cuomo, current governor of New York, and his father Mario Coumo, former governor of New York. Andrew has revealed his worries for his brother Chris, who has spoken about hallucinating conversations with their dead father because of his intense coronavirus fever
Chris Cuomo first announced on Tuesday that he tested positive for COVID-19 and suffered symptoms of a fever, shortness of breath and chills.
‘Sooooo in these difficult times that seem to get more difficult and complicated by the day, I just found out that I am positive for coronavirus. I have been exposed to people in recent days who have subsequently tested positive and I had fever, chills and shortness of breath,’ he said.
‘I just hope I didn’t give it to the kids and Cristina. That would make me feel worse than this illness!
But Cuomo assured his followers, ‘we will all beat this by being smart and tough and united!’
The chilling extent of the effect of the virus on his body was only heard on Wednesday when he spoke about the sleepless night he suffered as symptoms ravaged his body.
‘I want you to be thinking about everybody who is not as lucky as I am who are dealing with the same that I am and 10 times worse, especially after what I learned last night,’ he said of his illness.
‘This virus came at me — I’ve never seen anything like it, okay? So I’ve had a fever. You’ve had a fever, 102, 103-plus that wouldn’t quit. It was like somebody was beating me like a pinata. I was shivering so much … I chipped my tooth.’
Chris Cuomo revealed the shocking details of his coronavirus symptoms which have left him feeling like he was being hit by a pinata and has him shivering so severely he chipped a tooth
.@ChrisCuomo: “Care enough to not just to stay home but to stay on our leaders to make sure that they are doing everything they can to limit this.”
“How do you want to be remembered during this time?” pic.twitter.com/zKnIndUGwn
— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) April 2, 2020
‘So the sun comes up. I was up all night. I was hallucinating,’ he added.
‘My dad was talking to me.
‘I was seeing people from college, people I haven’t seen in forever. It was freaky what I lived through last night.’
Cuomo added that while his fever was intense, he was not yet suffering major problems with his chest or trouble breathing but said he can imagine the worry that is caused by patients who begin to feel this.
‘I get it now. If you match that with chest constrictions and people who can’t breath,’ he said.
Speaking to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Cuomo added that he would have panicked if at any stage he felt like he couldn’t breathe because his fever was already so intense that he thought the shivering was never going to end.
‘Some people think they have a lower grade flu, some people think they have a sinus infection. I’ve got this thing that presents like the pain and the tremors, what they call the rigors, those things,’ he told Murphy.
‘And I’ll tell you, if I couldn’t breathe well, last night, I would have definitely freaked out and thought about having to call for help. If I couldn’t have breathed through the shivering and that I thought was never going to end and the fever.
‘I totally get why people are sent into a panic here, because you think you may not make it.’
The TV personality has said that he expects to be feeling this ill for another eight to 10 days before he hopes that symptoms will begin to dissipate, speaking of the exhaustion of having a fever so high and the dehydration that comes with it.
‘This is going to be hard and I know now, I have to be looking at an eight, 10-day fight,’ he revealed.
‘I’m ready for it now. It is maddening to have a fever all the time. Right now, I think I was at 101 1/2 or something like that. To have that all day long, I totally get why it is making people dehydrated and making them really very upset. I totally get it.’
During his Wednesday evening show, Cuomo also spoke to the husband of emergency room doctor Frank Gabrin who died of coronavirus Tuesday.
Gabrin, 60, died in his husband’s arms at their New York City home, just days after he began developing symptoms related to COVID-19.
His heartbroken widower, Arnold Vargas, said that the couple spent half an hour on hold waiting for an ambulance to arrive while Gabrin struggled to breathe. He died before help arrived.
Dr Frank Gabrin, 60, is pictured in a recent photo with his husband Arnold Vargas
Gabrin worked at two New Jersey hospitals and continued treating patients despite the fact he had survived cancer on two separate occasions, making him high-risk.
In a heartbreaking interview in which Vargas battled through his tears, he spoke about the bravery of his husband in putting himself at risk because he wanted to help others.
‘He was a person, he loved to help people, he just wanted to help people,’ Vargas said before struggling to continue.
Vargas, left, could only speak for a few seconds about his husband leaving friend Deborah, right, to detail the doctor’s dedication to his patients and his coworkers despite the crisis
Dr. Frank Gabrin had been treating coronavirus patients on the front lines. He died in his husband’s arms just days after showing symptoms.
His heartbroken husband honors his memory tonight on the show as a hero “who loved to help people.” pic.twitter.com/SKAHH9txlt
— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) April 2, 2020
As Vargas continued to struggle with his heartbreak, Cuomo turned to the doctor’s friend Deborah who spoke more about Gabrin’s dedication to treat his patients as best he could despite the pandemic.
‘Frank put people first, whether it was his coworkers or the patients. He felt that if he became a health care worker, if he were a doctor or a nurse, you did it because you cared and you wanted to make a difference,’ she said.
‘You were there for a reason. Up had made that decision long before. So, he always worked to make the lives of the people he worked with as good as he could.
‘He made sure that they felt good. He taught them how to get satisfaction with compassion. And even as this was coming on, he was finding ways to make it work.
‘And he was still, the last post that he had actually made was talking about how important it was for us to have compassion, kindness and care for each other.
‘He didn’t expect this to happen.’
Cuomo’s coronavirus case has hit his coworkers at CNN hard and has prompted words of praise from his brother New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
CNN anchor Don Lemon broke down in tears on Tuesday night while talking about Cuomo.
The 54-year-old host was interviewing his colleague Bianna Golodryga on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon Tuesday night on how Americans are unable to pay their mortgages due to the pandemic, and his eyes turned red and started to tear.
‘Sorry, I said I wasn’t going to do this… He’s probably at home laughing at me,’ Lemon said before detailing his close friendship with Cuomo.
‘Chris and I are really good friends, we live near each other,’ he continued.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo provides a coronavirus update during a press conference Wednesday in which he spoke about he fears for his brother Chris who has coronavirus
Gov. Cuomo spoke of his fears for his younger brother during his Wednesday press conference in which he said he felt ‘out of control’ at not being able to protect him.
‘I couldn’t protect my own brother. With all he knows and as smart as he is, he couldn’t protect himself,’ the older Cuomo brother said.
‘When he told me he had the coronavirus, it scared me. It frightened me. Why? Because we still don’t know. You’re talking about my little brother. This is my best friend.
‘I’m out of control and there is nobody who can tell me and doctors can’t tell me anything, and Tony Fauci can’t tell me anything because nobody really knows.’