A fit-and-healthy mother who filmed herself struggling to breathe as she warned of the dangers of coronavirus has said it felt like having ‘glass in her lungs’.
Tara Jane Langston, 39, told of how every breath is a ‘battle’ but she is now out of intensive care and recovering well.
The mother-of-two was rushed to hospital by ambulance last Friday and eventually diagnosed with Covid-19 on Sunday.
Tara Jane Langston, 39, who is now recovering, filmed herself with her phone in the intensive care unit at Hillingdon Hospital in west London. She said every breath is a ‘battle’
Ms Langston had filmed herself with her phone in the intensive care unit at Hillingdon Hospital in west London pleading with others to take the deadly COVID-19 seriously.
Gasping for breath and coughing, she made the harrowing video the following day and sent it as a Whatsapp message to her colleagues warning them to take care.
She had been unwell all of last week after initially being diagnosed with a chest infection and given antibiotics, which she took alongside ibuprofen and paracetamol.
Ms Langston, a waitress, now believes the ibuprofen may have exacerbated the virus, which kept her at Hillingdon Hospital in west London for the last week.
She told MailOnline this evening: ‘It’s like having glass in your lungs, it’s hard to explain, but every breath is a battle.
‘It’s absolutely horrible and I wouldn’t want to go through anything like this ever again. I’d been ill for about five days before I was taken to hospital in an ambulance.
‘I’d originally been diagnosed with a chest infection and given antibiotics and advised to take ibuprofen and paracetamol. I was taking about eight ibuprofen a day and they now think that that exacerbated the problem.
‘When I was taken into intensive care they originally planned to sedate me and keep me in intubation because my body had gone through it all for the best part of a week and I was shattered.
‘Fortunately I was kept awake but needed six litres of oxygen. Now that I’m improving I’m on one litre.’
The shocking video, which has gone viral on social media, appears to show it is not just the elderly or those with underlying health conditions who are at risk.
Pictured: Mother-of-two Ms Langston before she tested positive for the coronavirus last week
Ms Langston is now recovering from her ordeal after catching the virus, which has infected 2,695 people and killed 137 in Britain alone.
Speaking to the camera Ms Langston says: ‘I’m in the intensive care unit and I can’t breathe without this. They’ve had to sew that into my artery. I’ve got a cannula, another cannula and a catheter. I’m actually ten times better than what I was before. I’ve lost count of the days.
‘If anyone still smokes, put the cigarettes down because I’m telling you now you need your f***ing lungs and, please, none of you take any chances, I mean it, because if it gets really bad than you’re going to end up here. My body is fighting this so once again don’t take any chances.’
Ms Langston, from north west London, who is now out of intensive care, was initially seen by doctors nearly 11 days ago when she started feeling unwell after a trip to Krakow in Poland with husband Richard and their two daughters.
She took a cab to Hillingdon Hospital where she was diagnosed with a chest infection and given antibiotics.
Her health, however, deteriorated throughout last week and she was rushed by ambulance back to hospital where she was this time diagnosed with pneumonia.
Ms Langston was then tested for the coronavirus and the results came back positive on Sunday, prompting her to be rushed into intensive care.
She said that she wanted to show that it is not just elderly or those with underlying health conditions who are at risk.
She was rushed to hospital last Friday and tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday. In the footage, she pleaded with others to take the deadly COVID-19 seriously
Ms Langston, from North West London said: ‘There were two other patients with me in the ICU, both of who were being intubated. One was quite a large man who I’d say was about late 50s or early 60s and the other was a lady roughly the same age. So these were not elderly people.
‘That was my reasoning behind doing that video was to warn that younger people are susceptible too. It’s quite surreal being in the ICU, the nurses are covered head to toe but they are literally working non-stop and have been brilliant.
‘They are actually running out of facemasks. One nurse came into my room the other day with a sort of plastic sheeting covering her face, it looked like the sort of clear plastic wrapper flowers come in.
‘I just worry that when this virus starts getting worse they’re going to be swamped.’
Ms Langston said that she has watched in dismay clips of commuters still cramming into tube trains and drinkers packing out pubs, refusing to heed the advice of the government to stay home.
She said that becoming infected had changed her viewpoint, explaining: ‘People have to realise that they need to self-isolate, it’s the only way. Believe me.
‘I can understand their mind-set because I had that attitude before of ‘it’s a load of nonsense, it’s just being all hyped up’ before I got this– I wasn’t one to buy into all the hysteria. But then I got the coronavirus and I never again want to experience anything like it because it was a deeply unpleasant experience.
‘That’s why I filmed myself in the ICU and sent it to my work mates because they were supposed to be all meeting up for a training event and I wanted to tell them not to go as it wasn’t worth the risk. They’d be better off staying at home self-isolating.
‘Whatever restrictions the government has now been put in place should have been done two weeks ago I believe. My story should be a warning to others – you need to take this seriously.’
Ms Langston’s husband Richard, 34, earlier told MailOnline they had returned from Poland on February 26 and had visited Auschwitz, where there were people from all over the world.
But he said she could have possibly also have got it from going to the gym, adding: ‘She’s out of intensive care now and is making good progress. We just want her back at home.’