Man who survived Covid-19 asks restriction flouters to consider: ‘How much do you value your life?’

Father-of-four Joe Whorriskey, who lives in Burnfoot with his wife Linda and children, and is originally from Derry, says he became so ill he believed he would die, and added: ‘I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.’

The 47-year-old stressed that it is not only the elderly who can get seriously ill from Covid-19 and told anyone flouting advice to ‘make a will, because you’ll need it.’

Joe’s symptoms began with ‘really bad’ pains in his back and joints. As he suffers from a sore back, he believed that might be the cause. “But it was never, ever that sore. It was terrible.” By the Wednesday after Mother’s Day, March 28, he had a ‘really bad cough’ and was ‘spluttering and spitting up.’

Joe, who has high blood pressure, later phoned his GP at Buncrana Medical Centre and a coronavirus test was organised for the Saturday morning. On the Monday, Joe had an extremely high temperature and was ‘so, so sick.’ “I rang my doctor and said that I couldn’t take anymore. I couldn’t breathe.”

The doctor arranged an ambulance, with paramedics arriving in personal protection equipment. Joe was taken to Letterkenny University Hospital. “The test had come back positive and I didn’t realise at that stage I had double pneumonia. They did a scan and within minutes, came back and said that I was going under straight away and to get in contact with my wife.”

Joe spoke of how he wasn’t frightened, as he was ‘so, so ill, I didn’t know what was going on. I have never, ever been as sick as this. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

Joe was ventilated and sedated in ICU.

“They told Linda I was critical, but stable.”

The next day, he was transferred to Galway University Hospital ‘as it is a bigger facility.’

He remained there, ventilated and sedated until the Thursday, when he was woken up.

“I was still ‘cocooned’ in like a bubble and a hood surrounding my head. I was getting oxygen pumped into me and into my neck. I asked the nurse what day it was and she said Thursday, April 2, I thought she was joking.

“I asked where I was and she told me I was in Galway hospital. I don’t remember a thing after I was sedated in Letterkenny. It was quite hard to take, to realise you had been sedated for days and had been transferred to another hospital, without realising a thing.”

Joe said he believed he was going to die and became quite down, particularly as he could not see his family due to restrictions.

He did not have a phone, but the nurses went out and bought a phone for the ward.

“At one stage, after I woke, I looked down at my hands and arms and nails and they honestly looked like they belonged to a dead person. I thought: ‘It’s over.’ The doctors said that my numbers looked good, but I thought they were saying that to comfort me in my last days. It was only when I went to the ward that I thought I might actually live.’

He told how he was so weak, ‘it felt like I’d to learn to walk again,’

“I couldn’t even get out of bed and the nurses had to help me.”

But, on the Sunday he became determined to do things for himself and began sitting out on the chair and walking as much as he could. He continued to improve and was discharged to Letterkenny, before returning home on Tuesday. Joe does not know where he contracted the virus. At the beginning of March, his daughter did receive a text from the Health Service Executive (HSE), informing her she may have been in contact with someone diagnosed with the virus.

“She had a cough, but nothing too bad. So, we don’t know if she had it and gave it to me, or if she didn’t have it and I got it somewhere else.”

He is still weak and said he will remain at home until coronavirus passes as he does not know if he is immune, as no-one can yet tell. Those with high blood pressure are also an ‘at-risk’ group, according to the HSE.

Joe is indebted to the staff of Letterkenny and Galway - the latter of which he said is ‘very underfunded’ and added: “If I had not been ventilated when I was, I would be dead. I know that.’ He is also attributing much of his recovery to the power of prayer and told how ‘many’ people were praying for him.

“I was praying for myself. I managed to be someone who went from critically ill and ventilated to home from hospital within eight days and I do think that prayer had something to do with that. The staff in the hospitals were second to none and I have no doubt that if I hadn’t been ventilated, I would have died.”

Joe, who is still feeling weak said he feels he has got a ‘second chance at life’ and pleaded with people to ‘stay at home’ this weekend and as long as restrictions are in place.

He asked them: “How much do you value your life? You are taking your life in your own hands. If you get this, it has the possibility of killing you, If one person has it, they can infect so many others. I know it’s Easter, but if you’re thinking of going out and about, make a will, because you’re going to need it. And don’t think this only affects older people. There are people in their 30s dying from this.

“If we stay at home for the next few weeks or until the restrictions are lifted, we can beat this off. Just stay at home.

“I’m now on the road to recovery. When I asked the doctors leaving the hospital if I’d have any lasting effects, they told me they didn’t know. And, they don’t. Nobody knows the effects of it or how it will affect them. This could happen to anyone. I feel so, so glad to be alive. I’m so grateful to have a second chance at life.”