I Put Off Help ... Now I Was In Big Trouble

COVID-19 has devastated lives and livelihoods across the world since early last year.

For some people lucky enough to survive being hospitalised, it’s dramatically affected how they view the future.

Here, the Daily Star Sunday’s Phil Burkett recounts his fight against the virus – and how it has changed his outlook forever.

JUST after Christmas, on Monday, December 28, I started showing the full symptoms of Covid-19.

By the Wednesday I’d received and returned my home testing kit, with the result coming back “positive” on January 2.

For the next four days, my health deteriorated rapidly – no appetite, sense of smell nor taste, along with a raging 38/39C temperature.

On January 7 things took a dramatic turn for the worse. Walking to the bathroom I could hardly breathe, even just trying to take a few steps.

It was then that I took the wrong decision – NOT to go to hospital immediately. Later that day my partner Sally spoke to doctors on the NHS 111 Covid-19 helpline. Thank God she did. They asked her to pass me the phone and, within 30 seconds, they’d heard enough to send an ambulance to me.

Minutes later paramedics had arrived, taken my blood pressure, temperature and blood oxygen levels, deciding we had to get to hospital “right now”.

With hospitals filling fast with Covid patients in early January, that was easier said than done. We waited one or two minutes as the paramedics called to find somewhere with a free bed.