An Ohio man infected with the coronavirus and who was originally believed to have pneumonia has come forward to describe his hellish symptoms.
Kevin Harris, 55, of Warren, in footage he filmed from his hospital bed and posted on Facebook last Friday, detailed the frightening ordeal, which had him asking doctors whether he would survive.
Harris recalls one physician tearing up when he asked the question.
Kevin Harris has come forward to describe his ordeal being infected with the coronavirus after he was originally believed to have pneumonia. The 55-year-old Warren, Ohio, man is pictured before he came down with the infection in a Facebook post
Harris is pictured in his hospital bed from footage he posted on Facebook after he came to learn he was infected with the coronavirus
Harris says the frightening ordeal had him asking doctors whether he would survive
In the footage, Harris is seen lying in his bed looking weak from the unbearable symptoms
The father of four, with three grand children, is seen in the footage attached to breathing equipment
In the footage, Harris turns the camera away to show monitors tracking his painful recovery
The footage also reveals a medical professional who was treating Harris wearing a full body suit, mask and gloves
In the footage, the unnamed medical professional gives Harris the victory sign as a sign of hope for his recovery
OTher medical professionals who were treating him confessed they didn’t know what his chances were of recovering from the deadly, flu-like illness which has spread into a global pandemic, he the New York Post after shooting the footage.
‘I was like one big ball of pain,’ he says of the unbearable discomfort that brought him to tears, crying ‘like a little girl,’ just moving from his bed to a nearby chair, reports the Post.
The coroanvirus has been confirmed in 11,325 cases of the coronavirus and blamed for 165 deaths in the US. Ohio has had 119 confirmed cases and no known deaths that were blamed on the infection.
Harris, an auto body shop owner and father of four children, with three grandchildren, said he suspects he was exposed to the infection at another hospital when he went in for an appointment that ended up being canceled.
His symptoms had started out as a tickle in the back of his throat, which he felt just before going to bed. By the next morning, he says his felt like he was experiencing a severe flu.
Five days later, he was being admitted to a hospital thinking he was suffocating.
At first, physicians at St. Joseph Hospital in Warren thought he had pneumonia, but three days later they were sure he had the coronavirus.
‘They told me they didn’t have a cure,’ Harris told The Post from his hospital room, where he was still on breathing equipment Tuesday night.
‘I just wanted them to tell me if I’m going to live or die.’
His symptoms only worsened, says Harris, who couldn’t clear his throat and had a persistent coughing. Then came a fever and headaches, followed by what he considered to be the worst: body aches.
He couldn’t rate the pain on a scale of 1 to 15. He said it was more like a ’15’.
‘The pain is off the charts. Everything hurts, nose, toes and ears,’ said Harris. ‘I was like one big ball of pain.’
The coroanvirus has been confirmed in 11,325 cases of the coronavirus and blamed for 165 deaths in the US
His fever dropped before he was hospitalized and it looked like Harris was getting better, but the symptoms returned hard. Harris, who is a distance runner, said breathing became so difficult that he began choking.
‘Imagine your lungs turning solid. It’s like suffocating without holding your nose,’ he said.
‘Every time I lay down, my breathing gets lower and lower. I thought my lungs would fail me. I was screaming for mercy and praying to God.’
When he arrived at the hospital, he was moving so slow that going about 50 feet to the bathroom could take him as long as an hour, and that was with two stops and him lying on the floor.
He said his doctors couldn’t believe when he tested positive for the coronavirus. He had been the hospital’s first case.
By Thursday of this week, Harris had made a new post, showing that he was back on his feet.
Harris in a subsequent Facebook post appears out of his hospital bed showing signs he was regaining his strength
In the new post, Harris says he’s back on his feet and able to walk. ‘As bad as I want to go outside, I ain’t go no business out there. Much, much better, I can breathe, I can walk. I can’t walk too far, but, I can walk’
As bad as I want to go outside, I ain’t go no business out there. Much, much better, I can breathe, I can walk. I can’t walk too far, but, I can walk.
In the Facebook post, Harris writes about his difficult road to recovery. ‘Almost there!’ he wrote in the post, followed by the hashtags #coronavirussurvivor, #beatthecoronavirus and #wecanbeatthecoronavirus