A COVID-19 patient in Health Sciences North’s Intensive Care Unit wants to send a message to the public: “Take this pandemic seriously, and pray to God you don’t get it.”
Michel Landry, 56, is currently receiving oxygen in the ICU after being admitted to hospital on March 13. His family of three have all contracted the virus.
Landry said his 19-year-old daughter first started exhibiting symptoms on Thursday. At first, they thought it was just allergies starting up with the warmer weather. But when Landry himself started feeling ill Thursday night, he said they knew it was something else.
His wife also tested positive. She and their daughter are able to self-isolate at home.
Landry wasn’t so lucky, and COVID-19 is devastating his lung capacity, he said.
Landry said the first thing he noticed when he started feeling ill was a “nasty” headache, followed by severe eye pressure, and it continued from there with a fever that reached 38.6 C, as well as “unbelievable” body aches.
“It felt like I had been hit by a truck,” Landry told Sudbury.com from his bed in the ICU at HSN.
Then on Saturday, with his health continuing to decline, he called the assessment centre, but asked if they could send someone to his home to test him. Paramedics attended his home, then took him to the hospital via ambulance.
“It’s lucky that I did ask, because I don’t think I would have made it to the hospital,” Landry said.
He said he was admitted to the ICU, where he stayed for one night, then was moved to the critical care ICU, where he is right now with other COVID-19 patients.
HSN reported there are 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the hospital. According to the HSN website, this included eight COVID patients in the Intensive Care Unit (as of this writing).
“They had to increase my oxygen intake by 85 per cent just to get it to the point where I could breathe like normal,” Landry said.
While he is no longer experiencing headaches or any other pain associated with COVID-19, his lungs are nowhere near what they need to be for him to go home, he said.
“Hopefully I walk out of here, that’s my end goal, but I don’t know how long that will take,” Landry said. “I miss my family dearly. It’s very tough. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone in the world. No one deserves this.”
Staff at Health Sciences North have been phenomenal, he said.
“They are a godsend,” said Landry. “They are trying to keep me positive, even though it’s a little discouraging with the (COVID-19 case) numbers changing all the time.”
Landry said he wants people to wake up and realize just how serious this pandemic is.
“This isn’t a conspiracy, it’s not a fake disease,” he said. “It’s out there, it’s hurting people, it’s killing people, and I don’t want to die, and I don’t want anyone else to die.”
Landry said his family has been very diligent over the past year in abiding by public health regulations, only travelling for essential reasons, like work. But they contracted the virus anyway.
Even if you are healthy, COVID-19 could very well still affect you, especially if you have underlying health issues, he said.
Ontario recorded 1,745 new cases today (March 19). As of yesterday (the most recent data available as of publication), Public Health Sudbury & Districts (PHSD) reported there are 261 active cases of COVID-19 being actively monitored.
This means that since the health unit began tracking COVID-19 cases one year ago, there have now been 1,100 total COVID-19 cases confirmed locally. PHSD also said 839 of those cases have been resolved locally.
Most cases are in the Greater Sudbury area.
