COVID-19 S’porean Patient Opens Up About Her Experience in ICU & How She Made a Full Recovery

If this hasn’t been clear to you, let Phua Chu Kang tell you this again:

COVID-19 is a nasty virus that we want to minus, but it’s not as deadly as SARS.

SARS has a fatality rate of 9.6%, while COVID-19 has a fatality rate of  2.1%—and that could be lower if we remove China’s reported number. If you’d have remembered how serious SARS were, you’d know that people who died of SARS must be cremated within 24 hours.

But that doesn’t mean you can grab a stranger and cough into his or her face now: firstly, it’s illegal to do that even without the COVID-19 outbreak and secondly, it might not be as deadly as SARS but it’s still a serious outbreak.

How serious, you ask.

Well, in other countries, people have died and in Singapore, patients could be admitted into the ICU.

As of yesterday, of the 54 confirmed cases who are still warded, 6 of them are in ICU.

But it’s not the end when one’s in ICU.

A patient who had to be admitted into one has spoken out, and her story shows us that while we’re out there fighting the nasty bug, these people who’ve been infected are going through another kind of battle.

COVID-19 S’porean Patient Opens Up About How She Was in ICU & Finally Made a Full Recovery

Today, MOH told us a story about Mrs Zhang, 1 of the 92 Singaporeans who was evacuated from Wuhan on 30 January 2020.

The 47-year-old housewife had no symptoms when she boarded the plane, but once she landed on Singapore, she was caught with a fever and immediately treated as a suspect case.

Soon, she was tested positive for the virus and was codenamed “Case 15”.

Unlike some patients who didn’t even exhibit any symptom at all, Mrs Zhang’s condition deteriorated suddenly.

She recalled, “I was very scared. They stuck the oxygen tube into my nose, and turned up the level so that I could breathe. But because my lungs were not functioning well, it did not work.

“I remember vividly the day I had extreme difficulty in breathing, and felt that I was dying. I thought: ‘Am I dying?’”

The good folks in white immediately sent her to an intensive care unit.

She added, “At that time, I could not move, but my mind was clear. I heard their conversation clearly. A doctor kept holding my head, and telling me not to worry. She said: ‘Don’t worry, we will insert a tube to help you in your breathing.’ She kept reassuring me. She is indeed a very gentle lady.”

Ah, as usual, another unsung hero whom we’d never know who she is.

She was soon taken out of ICU.

Just like a previous patient who had sung praises for the medical staff, Mrs Zhang, too,  had nothing but gratitude for those masked men and women.

She said those masked heroes had treated her “like family” and “kept encouraging me every day”.

Here’s an image of her with her new family who are now Peter-Parker-ed.

Allow me to online shame these people and feel free to share their faces everywhere online. They should go viral for being the heroes we need but don’t deserve.

Encouragement for Everyone

Mrs Zhang had come back to Singapore with her husband and teenage son, and her son is infected, too.

When she was in ICU, her husband wasn’t able to sleep for a few nights. Note to all girlfriends / wives: told you guys express their love differently one liao.

The teenage son is not cleared of the virus yet but is currently in stable condition. Mrs Zhang is now discharged and is looking forward to just one thing: to go back to her original life, something that many of us have taken for granted.

She said, “I just want to go back to my ordinary life, to go exercising with my friends, then marketing, and have a cup of coffee. Later in the night, prepare dinner for my husband and children. I think that would be good.”

And she has some advice for people who are still warded: “We must pull through. We have family and friends. This disease does not mean inevitable death…I have confidence in our medical team and their skills. I believe they will be able to save us.”

Me too.

Reader Bao: Eh, you’re supposed to be objective in your articles. No wonder so many people hate Goody Feed

Wah, Ah Bao, I just online shamed so many nurses and you think I’m still objective?

Let’s now hope that all the 54 patients would be discharged soon and go back to their original life, whether it’s having coffee or bubble tea. That would be good.