Marc Thibault fought for his life for 13 days in an ICU
Rhode Island vice principal Marc Thibault describes to the WSJ what it was like to have coronavirus. He was admitted to hospital Feb 27 after returning from Italy Feb 22 and feeling poor on the flight home.
Mr. Thibault, one of the first Americans diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, recounted days of pain and fear in his first interview Tuesday, speaking from the intensive-care unit at the Providence hospital where he has been for 13 days, fighting the illness that attacked his lungs.
"I was one inch from death," he said, his voice weary. "No doubt about it. No doubt about it."
He said the virus hit him 'like a hurricane' and that he had trouble breathing. What's terrifying is that if/when intensive care units are overrun, there will be no help for people like him.
"The feeling of choking. That was the worst part," he said.
"You feel like you're asphyxiating, and you're panicking because you can't breathe.
"The agony went on for days.His wife, and his two children, ages 20 and 15, were unable to visit, lest they become infected, too.
"Just get through the next hour, the next hour, the next hour," Mr. Thibault told himself. "It's just one time you quit and then you're dead."
