A nurse has shared dramatic before-and-after pictures to show that anyone can be at risk of COVID-19.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, it has been near enough common knowledge that those who are most at risk at the elderly and people with underlying health conditions, but as time has gone on, various stories have emerged demonstrating that the virus can have severe consequences for those outside these groups.
This 30-year-old model, for example, was left gasping for breath in hospital and subsequently warned young people to take coronavirus seriously.
Then there was this skeptic who changed his mind on its severity after he contracted COVID-19:Now, Mike Schultz, a previously healthy San Fransisco nurse, has shown the dramatic effect COVID-19 had on his body after he was admitted to hospital on March 16 after experiencing mild symptoms that escalated a fever of 103°F.
In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Schultz explained that he had been traveling with his boyfriend earlier in March, and upon admission to the hospital, he was given oxygen and prepared for intubation. He was intubated for over four weeks.
Taking to Instagram, he shared a before-and-after picture of the dramatic weight loss he underwent while he had the virus.
He captioned the images:
"I wanted to show everyone how badly being sedated for 6 weeks on a ventilator or intubated can be. Amongst other things, covid19 reduced my lung capacity with pneumonia. Over 8 weeks I've been away from family and friends Getting stronger [every day] and working to increase my lung capacity. I'll get back to where I was in healthier ways this time... maybe even do cardio."
Schultz told BuzzFeed News that the picture on the right was taken about a month before he was hospitalized and the picture on the left was taken in a recovery ward bathroom. He said that just standing up to take the selfie took a lot of effort.
Like many people, Schultz had fallen into the trap of thinking that the coronavirus was a mild illness and believed that he would be able to recover easily if he contracted it. But now he has been in the hospital for weeks and still has a long recovery journey ahead of him.
"I thought I was young enough for it not to affect me, and I know a lot of people think that," Schultz said. "I wanted to show it can happen to anyone. It doesn't matter if you’re young or old, have preexisting conditions or not. It can affect you."