VIDEO: Emotional Interview of 1st Kenyan Covid-19 survival out of ICU
The first Kenyan patient to recover from Covid-19 after being put on ventilators in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) opened up on his experience in an interview with Citizen TV‘s Asha Mwilu on Sunday, April 12.
In the interview, the man who was discharged from Aga Khan Hospital after 21 days, 11 of which he spent in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), had his identity hidden presumably to avoid stigmatization, as he was referred to as Leon, not his real name, and his face blurred.
He disclosed that he had traveled to an unnamed foreign country on a Monday, and started experiencing symptoms by Sunday including general body weakness and loss of appetite while still abroad. Leon, however, assumed that this was due to the fatigue from his travels.
His situation worsened after he returned to the country, however, as he started experiencing a dry cough, intense fever and felt nauseated.
“When I came back I told my family we must quarantine ourselves and observe social distancing, I didn’t even greet them. I knew I had to go to the hospital,” he stated.
At Aga Khan Hospital, his case was handled by Dr Reena Shah who leads the Infectious Disease Unit (IDU) at the hospital.
“He walked into the hospital but he had a cough and difficulty breathing. We were monitoring him in the isolation ward, away from the general ward.
“We found that after 48 hours his oxygen requirements were going up, so at that point, we made a decision to take him to ICU. We incubated him, put a tube into his lungs and artificially took over the function of his lungs, that’s what we call ventilation,” she explained.
Leon opened up on the difficult moments he spent connected to ventilators in the ICU, struggling to breathe as health workers watched him in full protective gear.
“They explained to me that I was being transferred, that in ICU they’re able to monitor your vitals, and oxygenate you if need be.
“It is a very difficult situation, because you feel like you’re being choked. And I can tell you, sometimes you have a lot of mucus, a lot of discharge from your nose and lungs. It is very difficult,” he stated.
After testing negative twice for Covid-19, Leon was taken off the ventilators and eventually discharged as he was deemed to have fully recovered.
“The ICU is an isolation room. Everyone coming in had to put on full protective gear.
“I tested positive for this virus and I could understand they needed to protect themselves. In fact, sometimes they were taking quite long when I was in pain but I could understand that they needed to protect themselves,” he recalled.
He advised Kenyans that the virus was real, stating that he felt a responsibility to open up on his story.
“Don’t assume that you are very far from it because it is everywhere,” he asserted.
As he went back home, Shah advised him to eat healthily and continue observing social distancing measures.
Source-kenyans.co.ke
