By timesecholife on in All News, Latest News
Healthcare heroes who have been struck by the coronavirus are urging people to continue to take precautions against the disease. Paramedic John Bourne was rushed to hospital after contracting the virus which developed into Covid-19 pneumonia. His wife Eve, who is a nurse for a private healthcare provider, has tested positive for the virus for the last six weeks, despite having very different symptoms.
Healthcare heroes who have been struck by the coronavirus are urging people to continue to take precautions against the disease.
Paramedic John Bourne was rushed to hospital after contracting the virus which developed into Covid-19 pneumonia.
His wife Eve, who is a nurse for a private healthcare provider, has tested positive for the virus for the last six weeks, despite having very different symptoms.
The couple, who live with their two children in Cheadle, have spent weeks in isolation and are now urging people to continue taking precautions against the spread of the disease.
John, aged 57, who is operations manager for West Midlands Ambulance Service at the Stoke Hub, was taken ill on March 30. Eve, aged 46, described the terrifying moment he was rushed to hospital just over two weeks later.
She said: “John started feeling unwell but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. He started with a bit of a cough and an elevated temperature, so he isolated himself.
“After 15 days of his temperature spiking up to around 39 degrees, he was very unwell. He’d struggled to get out of bed, was very breathless and had severe muscle fatigue – just getting to the toilet was horrendous, he became very short of breath.
“I heard him moan and found him collapsed and gasping for breath. Paramedics in full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), arrived at the family’s home and decided to take John to hospital after detecting an abnormal heart rate. He was suffering from Covid-19 pneumonia.
Eve said: “It was a very traumatic time. I didn’t know if I was ever going to see him again.
“When he collapsed he was grey – I thought he was having a heart attack. The last thing I saw at that point was my husband being wheeled into the back of an ambulance and I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again.
“He was in resus for quite some time, they even had the defibrillator paddles on him at one point because his heart was at a very fast rate.
“I could call the hospital once a day for an update, but I was isolating at home with two children and trying to keep some sort of normality for them was very hard.
“When he was discharged he still had to keep returning to the hospital for his medication for the blood clots, which he will have to take for the next three to six months. His leg remains very swollen, but he is very thankful to be alive.”
John was treated on the infectious diseases ward and later transferred to Covid cardiology. Now back at home, he is recovering, but has been left with two blood clots in his leg.
While John was hospitalised, Eve was isolating at home with their two children James, aged 14, who is a student at Painsley Catholic College and 11-year-old Sasha, who is in Year 6 at St Thomas’ Primary School in Tean.
Now in her sixth week of testing positive for coronavirus, Eve had very different symptoms to John, with an upset tummy and general feeling of being unwell combined with a loss of taste and smell.
She said: “Don’t be fooled, this virus takes many forms, it’s quite frightening. We all just need to look after each other and stay safe.
“We’re very lucky to have such an amazing community. I was entirely reliant on other people while we were self-isolating and people have been extremely kind.
“We really need to look after the local businesses we have in town as they have been keeping us going.
“At one point I couldn’t get a supermarket delivery and the man at Fresh Produce in Cheadle went out of his way to help me. It was amazing.
“We’d just say to people not to be complacent. John was fit and healthy before the virus and if it can take him down like that it can affect anybody. I honestly thought he was going to die.”
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