Mom who went viral with stark COVID-19 warning opens up about thinking she 'was going to die'

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By VT

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Last week, "fit-and-healthy mother" Tara Jane Langston went viral after the 39-year-old mom-of-two was rushed to hospital earlier this month and later diagnosed with COVID-19.

While lying in a hospital bed in the ICU of Hillingdon Hospital in west London, the waitress shared a video of herself to social media, pleading with other people not to take "any chances" and to stop smoking as they were "going to need their lungs" if they were infected with the novel coronavirus.

Thankfully, the mother survived her ordeal, and earlier today, Langston appeared on UK morning show Good Morning Britain via video-link in order to provide an update on her condition.

Check out Tara's appearance on GMB in the video below:
[[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/IOkKsQ1M-dkXnENEs.mp4||IOkKsQ1M]]

Speaking to hosts Ben Shepherd and Kate Garraway, the mom recalls how watching her now-viral video back "made her heart skip a beat".

Langston revealed to the hosts that she was in hospital for a total of nine days, and returned home to her family on Sunday - Mother's Day in the UK.

She said: "Looking back at it, it makes my heart skip a beat. I actually thought I was going to die at that point in ICU.

"I was told I was going to be intubated, and I didn’t know what that meant. When they explained to me I was going to be put to sleep and sedated, so that my body could fight this – because my body was exhausted – I just thought, 'I’m never going to wake up. I’m not going to see my girls grow up and I’m not going to wake up. It was very traumatic."

You can watch Tara's emotional plea from her hospital bed in the video below:
[[facebookwidget||https://www.facebook.com/nicolepoppy.keatley/posts/10158012471798610]]

The video went viral after being shared by Tara's friends and family, including her sister, who accompanied the video with the caption:

"My sister is in her 30’s & normal health she contracted CV-19 and has been in intensive care for a while now. Please please please be careful & follow all guidelines & health measures. Just because the news is highlighting the elderly & people with [underlining] health issues as being high risk that doesn’t mean if/ when you catch this your body will be able to handle/ fight it easily.

"[Tara's] had BIG issues breathing & with the help of the hospital & NHS she’s back talking & can share her experience. Love you 600 Tara Jane Langston your so strong & doing amazing we miss you so much can’t wait to annoy you again after all this is over."

Speaking to the MailOnline, Tara said: "It’s like having glass in your lungs, it’s hard to explain, but every breath is a battle.

"It’s absolutely horrible and I wouldn’t want to go through anything like this ever again. I’d been ill for about five days before I was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

"I’d originally been diagnosed with a chest infection and given antibiotics and advised to take ibuprofen and paracetamol. I was taking about eight ibuprofen a day and they now think that that exacerbated the problem.

'When I was taken into intensive care they originally planned to sedate me and keep me in intubation because my body had gone through it all for the best part of a week and I was shattered.

"Fortunately I was kept awake but needed six liters of oxygen. Now that I’m improving I’m on one liter."

Langston also spoke about how she had still been seeing clips of commuters taking trains and people drinking in pubs - refusing to heed the advice of the government to stay home.

She explained: "People have to realize that they need to self-isolate, it’s the only way. Believe me.

"I can understand their mind-set because I had that attitude before of 'It’s a load of nonsense, it’s just being all hyped up'. Before I got this - I wasn’t one to buy into all the hysteria. But then I got the coronavirus and I never again want to experience anything like it because it was a deeply unpleasant experience.

"That’s why I filmed myself in the ICU and sent it to my workmates because they were supposed to be all meeting up for a training event and I wanted to tell them not to go as it wasn’t worth the risk. They’d be better off staying at home self-isolating.

"Whatever restrictions the government has now been put in place should have been done two weeks ago I believe. My story should be a warning to others – you need to take this seriously."

[[facebookwidget||https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217584402457693&set=ecnf.1106856568&type=3&theater]]

Tara's husband Richard, 34, later informed MailOnline that the couple had recently been on a trip to Auschwitz with people from all over the world - but admitted that his wife could have easily just have picked up the disease from her local gym.

Mom who went viral with stark COVID-19 warning opens up about thinking she 'was going to die'

vt-author-image

By VT

Article saved!Article saved!

Last week, "fit-and-healthy mother" Tara Jane Langston went viral after the 39-year-old mom-of-two was rushed to hospital earlier this month and later diagnosed with COVID-19.

While lying in a hospital bed in the ICU of Hillingdon Hospital in west London, the waitress shared a video of herself to social media, pleading with other people not to take "any chances" and to stop smoking as they were "going to need their lungs" if they were infected with the novel coronavirus.

Thankfully, the mother survived her ordeal, and earlier today, Langston appeared on UK morning show Good Morning Britain via video-link in order to provide an update on her condition.

Check out Tara's appearance on GMB in the video below:
[[jwplayerwidget||https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/IOkKsQ1M-dkXnENEs.mp4||IOkKsQ1M]]

Speaking to hosts Ben Shepherd and Kate Garraway, the mom recalls how watching her now-viral video back "made her heart skip a beat".

Langston revealed to the hosts that she was in hospital for a total of nine days, and returned home to her family on Sunday - Mother's Day in the UK.

She said: "Looking back at it, it makes my heart skip a beat. I actually thought I was going to die at that point in ICU.

"I was told I was going to be intubated, and I didn’t know what that meant. When they explained to me I was going to be put to sleep and sedated, so that my body could fight this – because my body was exhausted – I just thought, 'I’m never going to wake up. I’m not going to see my girls grow up and I’m not going to wake up. It was very traumatic."

You can watch Tara's emotional plea from her hospital bed in the video below:
[[facebookwidget||https://www.facebook.com/nicolepoppy.keatley/posts/10158012471798610]]

The video went viral after being shared by Tara's friends and family, including her sister, who accompanied the video with the caption:

"My sister is in her 30’s & normal health she contracted CV-19 and has been in intensive care for a while now. Please please please be careful & follow all guidelines & health measures. Just because the news is highlighting the elderly & people with [underlining] health issues as being high risk that doesn’t mean if/ when you catch this your body will be able to handle/ fight it easily.

"[Tara's] had BIG issues breathing & with the help of the hospital & NHS she’s back talking & can share her experience. Love you 600 Tara Jane Langston your so strong & doing amazing we miss you so much can’t wait to annoy you again after all this is over."

Speaking to the MailOnline, Tara said: "It’s like having glass in your lungs, it’s hard to explain, but every breath is a battle.

"It’s absolutely horrible and I wouldn’t want to go through anything like this ever again. I’d been ill for about five days before I was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

"I’d originally been diagnosed with a chest infection and given antibiotics and advised to take ibuprofen and paracetamol. I was taking about eight ibuprofen a day and they now think that that exacerbated the problem.

'When I was taken into intensive care they originally planned to sedate me and keep me in intubation because my body had gone through it all for the best part of a week and I was shattered.

"Fortunately I was kept awake but needed six liters of oxygen. Now that I’m improving I’m on one liter."

Langston also spoke about how she had still been seeing clips of commuters taking trains and people drinking in pubs - refusing to heed the advice of the government to stay home.

She explained: "People have to realize that they need to self-isolate, it’s the only way. Believe me.

"I can understand their mind-set because I had that attitude before of 'It’s a load of nonsense, it’s just being all hyped up'. Before I got this - I wasn’t one to buy into all the hysteria. But then I got the coronavirus and I never again want to experience anything like it because it was a deeply unpleasant experience.

"That’s why I filmed myself in the ICU and sent it to my workmates because they were supposed to be all meeting up for a training event and I wanted to tell them not to go as it wasn’t worth the risk. They’d be better off staying at home self-isolating.

"Whatever restrictions the government has now been put in place should have been done two weeks ago I believe. My story should be a warning to others – you need to take this seriously."

[[facebookwidget||https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217584402457693&set=ecnf.1106856568&type=3&theater]]

Tara's husband Richard, 34, later informed MailOnline that the couple had recently been on a trip to Auschwitz with people from all over the world - but admitted that his wife could have easily just have picked up the disease from her local gym.