"They reassured me that I’m in the best hands"
Dan, who lives with cystic fibrosis, was admitted to ICU at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in March where he was tested positive for Covid-19. In this blog, Dan reflects on his experience being treated for covid-19 with an underlying health condition.
"For the first time in my life I’m speechless, not because I find it difficult to talk, but due to the gratitude I’m overwhelmed with.
"I’m naturally a bubbly and loud person, but the day I was told I had COVID-19 my heart sank. All the news and headlines seemed to always involve a death related with coronavirus and it was rare to hear about the recovered. I thought my life and legacy was about to become a statistic added towards the ‘death’ cases.
"Although I felt physically fine, my team immediately took action. They had done the most important thing for any patient scared, they reassured me that I’m in the best hands. As soon as I arrived in ICU, the nursing team broke down all the information I needed to know about my care plans moving forward. At the time there was no specific treatment plan to contain the virus, but that did not matter, I knew they were figuring it out.
"Whilst I was scared and in a different environment, it didn’t feel any different to my normal ward. All the nurses were so compassionate, understanding, and most of all, honest. I felt completely safe, I knew that if I needed further support, they would do everything they can to keep me stable.
"Because of the nurses and doctors at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, I didn’t become a figure added to your screen under 'deaths' but instead I became a more important number added to 'recovered.'"
Cystic fibrosis is a condition that causes sticky mucus to build up in the lungs and digestive system, which causes lung infections and problems with digesting food.
Visit our webpage here for information about the Barts Health respiratory medicine service.