The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net 

TWO months after testing positive for COVID-19, Henry Dean says he still struggles with breathing normally even after having won his four-week long battle with the deadly virus.

The 62-year-old, who has now recovered, told The Tribune he contracted the disease in late September and tested positive on October 1 after being exposed to a friend who had been dishonest about having virus-related symptoms.

“I got it from a friend of mine who had it and denied having it,” he said. “So, I thought they were having some other issues and I had been in close proximity to this friend and talking and so I know where I got it.

“I was hugely angry with the person and I say that when I prayed about it in my sickness and released that anger, my recovery began. Because I was spending all my time pissed with this person. They ought to have known they had it and they lied to me and it was unfair to me.”

However, Mr Dean said it is was not his friend’s positive status, which was not known to him at the time, that led him to get tested for the infectious disease.

His desire to do so was driven by the death of one of his workers, who died from COVID-19 in late September.

“I had an employee who was pronounced dead on the 30th of September, and he’s been off from work for six weeks but a few weeks before, we discovered that he had COVID and that day he died the 30th I went for the test and on the first (of October) I got the result,” he told this newspaper. “Not one soul out of my office had gotten the virus since him so it’s clear to us that he did not get it from around us and he did not give it to any of us.”

Recalling his horrible experience with COVID, Mr Dean said he had almost every symptom with the exception of loss of appetite, adding there were times he thought he would die from the disease.

He added that he was the only one in his household who contracted the disease.

“I spent two nights in hospital,” he said. “I had the virus for like four weeks. My symptoms were more severe than I had realised and that I had talked about. My breathing was dangerously bad. My oxygen levels, I came home and in the succeeding two weeks, I properly used like more like 14 oxygen tanks.

“I had weakness in my limbs, I developed pneumonia and my wife was a nurse and she had to take time off because she was exposed and she stayed home for three weeks and her job was to constantly take my temperature and monitor my pressure and to make sure that they did not get fluids out of whack and that kind of thing requires more than a five-hour interval.”

He added: “A few times, I thought I would not have made it. I saw life leaving and then I had a close friend who contracted the virus a week or two after me and then he died and that too caused me to wonder about this thing.”

Mr Dean credits prayers and his faith in God for helping him defeat the virus.

“There’s no question who gets the credit. I attribute to prayerful warriors who troubled the throne on my behalf,” he said. “I’m satisfied that their prayerfulness played a huge role in my recovery and being able to speak at this moment.”

Mr Dean said while he has since recovered from the disease, he still struggles with some lingering effects such as breathing issues.

“Pretty much I’ve been cured of the virus in its pureness but there are lingering effects,” he said. “Well, I still have breathing challenges. I’m starting to do more physical work so hopefully, I’m regaining strength in the limbs. I don’t have problems in (my limbs) but I’m building back up where I was supposed to be. I’m 90 percent back to what I used to be.”

According to the US Centres for Disease Control, while most persons with COVID-19 recover and return to normal health, some patients can have symptoms that can last for weeks or even months after recovery.

Even people who are not hospitalised and who have mild illness can experience persistent or late symptoms, the CDC says. Common long-term symptoms include: fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, joint pain and chest pain. Other reported long-term symptoms include: difficulty with thinking and concentration (or brain fog), depression, muscle pain, headache, intermittent fever, and a fast-beating or pounding heart, the CDC says.

As of yesterday, total COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 7,585. There have also been 163 virus-related deaths while 24 are still under investigation.