Hello, Robert McDowell here, previously the commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission but a stronger part of my identity now is being a COVID-19 survivor. For me, the coronavirus was a battle of the unknown as I was convinced that my sickness was just attributed to my common case of my allergy-induced bronchitis. However, my facetime call with Dr. Le immediately sparked concern and I was rushed to the ER for the first time during my battle with the coronavirus where they found a spot of pneumonia in my left lung.Even though I tested positive for COVID-19, I was discharged from the hospital after two days as the doctors said that my numbers were improving but by the next day, my condition kept getting worse and I was having trouble breathing. After calling Dr. Le back and telling her the issue, she immediately called 911 and I was back in the hospital with double pneumonia, meaning my lungs were filling with fluid. But I didn’t feel like a dying man and I was not going to let this virus beat me even after being told I had less than a 50% chance of survival. Things got dramatically worse and I was headed toward intubation which I knew meant that I was unlikely to be coming home. I got to the point where I was giving my family burial instructions and had a priest visit me to give me the last rites. However, after Dr. Le had fought with the hospital doctors through facetime to get me on hydroxychloroquine, we all started seeing very positive results and I then started to come out from my nose dive and stabilize. After a few days of rest at the hospital, I was able to come home to a double rainbow in the sky, truly something I had never seen before, which I took as inspiration to always be grateful in life. I have learnt a lot from this life-threatening experience as I never thought that I could possibly get the coronavirus as I am a healthy 55 year old with no prior health issues but it just goes to show how serious this virus is and how unpredictable life is. The coronavirus is serious and can affect everyone even when they think it can’t so people need to do their part and stay home.
