31 Statements from Coronavirus Survivors That Will Make You Pause

*7-Minute Read*

(Photo Credit: Harvard Health)

When it comes to the Coronavirus, we all have questions. What does it feel like? How long will it last? Will I recover? The latter question was definitely in the minds of most, likely all, of these survivors who were either interviewed by or wrote for the media. Here are the insights of 31 people of varying ages living in varying places who had varying levels of COVID-19:



1) "First, you hear about the disease and get scared. Then, you find yourself in the middle of it, your own situation worsens. And when you overcome it all and come home, people avoid you and your family."
- a 62-year-old woman from India to Times of India

2) "I was getting very down, and my daughter said, 'You're just giving up!'"
- Mikel Daenan, a 50-year-old from Montana, to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle

3) "I didn't bathe for more than 20 days. I didn't even have towels. There was a smell of disinfectant on the food [at a makeshift hospital] that made me nauseous. But then I think about all my friends in Wuhan, all of them struggling to get a hospital bed, and I can't complain anymore." 
- Xiao Yao, a 27-year-old from China, to France 24

4) "Not at my age, don't intubate me. I have lived my life and I told [healthcare workers] 'Let me go peacefully.'"
- Gertrude Fatton, a 95-year-old from Switzerland, to Reuters 

5) "I'm going to go sit in the living room [when it's time to come out of isolation]. It will feel amazing."
- Matt Kelly, a 25-year-old from Pennsylvania, to the Bucks County Courier Times 

6) "I don't think anyone's going to say, 'I'm going to come to your house and slit your throat,' but they are saying, 'Stay away, you better not ever be around my family or I will hurt you.'" 
- Jerri Jorgenson, who was vacationing on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, to the St. George News

7) "There were nights where I was afraid to go to sleep. I thought I was going to die in my sleep."
- Chilah Harper, a 43-year-old from Michigan, to Hometown Life

8) "It feels like for 15 years, I've just been surviving and not really living, and then I finally get to this point in my life as a 27-year-old to a place where most 16-year-olds are at. I just got that taste of freedom and then this pandemic hit and I'm right back kind of where I was."
- Samantha Thiel, who survived childhood cancer and has several chronic illnesses, to the Jackson Sun

9) "They asked me if I was an organ donor. It was a sobering lesson." 
- Danny Burnstein, a six-time Tony nominee, to the New York Post 

10) "Thank you Governor Evers [of Wisconsin] for caring more about our HEALTH than our WEALTH." 
- the last sentence on Leah Blomberg's Facebook post reported by CNN

11) "I had to go through a lot of mental trauma that no one can imagine. I did not throw any party at all; my son had distributed candies in all sections of class 6 on his birthday, that's all. People spread rumors that I went to Agra and infected others, but I didn't even cross the Delhi border."
- Rohit Datta, a 45-year-old from India, to the Weather Channel 

12) "I don't think I was scared that I wasn't going to make it. I was scared that I wasn't ready to lose the people in my life without saying goodbye."
- Stacy Allegro, a 58-year-old cancer survivor from California, to ABC 7 News

13) "I guess the best way I can explain [having the coronavirus] is, imagine if you jump in water and, you know, you have that feeling of, 'I have to go up for air,' and you can't."
- Brittany Greco, a 27-year-old from Missouri, to News 4 Tucson

14) "He then fixed me with a hard look and added: 'You may not survive this.'"
- Robin Bowler, a 58-year-old from England, in his opinion article for Sky News 

15) "I'm lucky. I'm young and had a mild case. But I feel like a pariah. Our neighbors run away from me."
 - Rachel, a 21-year-old from Pennsylvania, to the Washington Post

16) "I couldn't sleep, anxiety invaded the room... nightmares came, death prowled."
- Fabio Biferali, a 65-year-old cardiologist from Italy, to India Today

17) "It's not fun, it's not fun being in the hospital bed, begging the nurse to turn up the oxygen and she says it's up all the way, begging for them to help you breathe. It's not fun." 
- Joline Griffin, a Florida resident, to WESH 2 News 

18) "The nurses eventually came out and treated me like a plague. I sat in the ambulance feeling rejected." 
- Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, a 29-year-old from Nigeria, on a Twitter post reported by CNN

19) "The scariest part was maybe starting on the fourth day [in the hospital] when people who got admitted at the same time as me started dying early in the morning."
- Carlo Navarro, a 48-year-old from the Philippines, to AP News

20) "I remember a nurse mopping my brow with a damp towel and soothing my hair, and putting lipsalve on my very dry lips. I went back to being a baby; I was utterly dependent on others for everything."    
- Hylton Murray-Philipson, who celebrated his 61st birthday while recovering at an English hospital, to the Guardian 

21) "I felt like we had been like lepers, frankly."
- Jim Somerville, who was vacationing with his wife on the Grand Princess cruise ship, to CBS Pittsburgh 

22) "[A nurse/friend] told me, 'If you don't fight for your life tonight, you're going to die. Your three boys are not going to have a father.' That just scared the heck out of me."
- JK Haehnle, a 44-year-old from Michigan, to Michigan Live

23) "I heard one person referring to my road as 'corona road,' and some people now avoid the road altogether. It hurts, but I have to be mature and accept it."
- Saul Sakudya, a 52-year-old from Zimbabwe, to the New York Times

24) "I'm a grown man, but I held [a hospital consultant's] hand and said 'Don't let me die.'"
- Roy Burton, a 53-year-old from England, to BBC News 

25) "People joke about being stranded on an island, but it does feel that way. I had everything that I needed, but it was the lack of human contact."
- a 52-year-old woman from Singapore to Channel News Asia

26) "[The isolation nurses'] eyes cannot hide their satisfaction for a job well done... thanks to the medical professionals... many battles are being won."                    - written by John Enger, a 77-year-old from Florida, reported by Local 10

27) "I died and came back."
- Juliet Daly, a 12-year-old from Louisiana, to Time

28) "It was like flesh was gonna fall off your bones."
- Jeanette Howell, a 75-year-old from Tennessee, to News 3 Memphis

29) "My one-year-old was crying because we wouldn't let him in the room. My wife picked him up and he looked at me and waved. He wanted to be with his daddy. My 9-year-old looked at mama and said, 'Dad is sick. Dad is really sick.'"
- Joshua McConico, a 35-year-old from Alabama, to ABC 4  

30) "It was hard to catch my breath, like breathing through a straw."
- Jillian Raimondi, a 30-year-old from New York, to Newsday 

31) "Amid all the uncertainty, this pandemic is also providing the rare opportunity to reflect on and embrace a lot of the other big 'C's' - community, climate, connection, and change, all in a new light. And while we're immersed in fear and darkness, that may be something small to celebrate."
- Kara Ladd, a 27-year-old cancer survivor from Colorado, in her article for Health Magazine


There are several similarities that are revealed from these few statements. Difficulty breathing is a common symptom of COVID-19. Survivors notice that others treat them much differently. They themselves have a whole new appreciation for life, especially regarding their families. And, no matter how much they suffered, they feel extremely lucky to be alive.

Let us all follow the golden rule, appreciate everybody and everything we have and, as I stated on my last post, refrain from complaining about being quarantined. And let us have a discussion about the Coronavirus in the comments below. Remember, we're all in this together, even though we're apart.

- Liv