Coming back from COVID-19: Matt’s story

Transcript

Transcript

My name is Matt, I am 19 years old and I had COVID-19.

What trigged me to go to the hospital was I became so sick one morning that I coughed up a large amount of blood. I got tested on my fist day into the hospital and I got the results back the next morning.

My family reacted at first in disbelief. Nobody thought I was going to have it, not even the doctors and nurses thought I had it. My mom had to leave the second I got diagnosed with COVID, and I was actually asleep at the time. So she had to wake me up to break the news, and then within that time period she was gone within 2 minutes… just gone.

An image on screen appears: Matt on a hospital bed with oxygen tubes in his nose.

As I was in the hospital, my symptoms were still getting worse. I needed to be admitted into the Intensive Care Unit and it was by far the worst I've ever felt in my life. I wouldn't want to wish that upon anyone.

An image on screen appears: Matt on a hospital bed with oxygen tubes in his nose.

After I got out of the hospital, I was very scared to give it to anyone, just because of how sick I was. So I definitely stayed away from my family, I stayed away from everyone that I could.

We tend to have invincibility factor where we don't think we're going to get it, or if we do, it's not going to be as bad. And if you look at a case like mine, I am a healthy 19 year old guy who loves to play sports and I still manage to get the virus.

An image on screen appears: Matt playing volleyball with other players.

It can happen to anybody.

If I can tell one thing to people my age to reduce the risk, it would just to be to listen to the public health guidelines, cause I don't want anyone to have to go through what I did.

A message from the Government of Canada.