MY VIRUS HELL
First Brit coronavirus victim reveals how horror bug left him in agony – sweating, shivering, and struggling to breathe
THE first Briton to catch coronavirus has told how it left him in agony, sweating and struggling to breathe as a "sniffle" turned into deadly pneumonia.
Connor Reed, 25, caught the killer bug in Wuhan in late November - before anyone had heard of the new strain.
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English teacher Connor, from Llandudno, North Wales, ended up in hospital but eventually beat the virus - and told The Sun last month how he fought it by drinking hot toddies.
Now he has given an account of how the virus "hit me like a train" even though he is young and fit.
Connor wrote in a diary how he came down with what seemed to be a cold, but it did not keep him off work and after five days he thought he was over it.
But on day seven he said: "I spoke too soon. I feel dreadful. This is no longer just a cold. I ache all over, my head is thumping, my eyes are burning, my throat is constricted.
"The cold has travelled down to my chest and I have a hacking cough. This is flu.
"The symptoms hit me this afternoon like a train and, unless there’s an overnight miracle, I will not be going to work tomorrow.
"It’s not just that I feel so ill — I really don’t want to give this flu to any of my colleagues."
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Connor said his "flu" lifted on day 11 and he felt better - but then had a relapse the next day.
He wrote: "Just as I thought the flu was getting better, it has come back with a vengeance.
"My breathing is laboured. Just getting up and going to the bathroom leaves me panting and exhausted.
"I’m sweating, burning up, dizzy and shivering. The television is on but I can’t make sense of it. This is a nightmare.
"By the afternoon, I feel like I am suffocating. I have never been this ill in my life. I can’t take more than sips of air and, when I breathe out, my lungs sound like a paper bag being crumpled up."
He took a taxi to hospital and was diagnosed with pneumonia. Doctors sent him home with antibiotics, which he was reluctant to take, and an inhaler for his lungs.
On day 18 he said his "lungs no longer sound like broken twigs", and by day 22 his pneumonia had gone - "but now I ache as if I've been run over by a steamroller".
He added: "My sinuses are agony, and my eardrums feel ready to pop. I know I shouldn’t but I’m massaging my inner ear with cotton buds, trying to take the pain away."
Weeks later there was panic buying the the shops as rumours spread of a nasty virus spreading in the city, and then people were ordered to stay indoors.
It was not until January that Connor was told he had coronavirus.
He is fully recovered but is living under lockdown in the "ghost city" - facing arrest if he leaves his flat.
Earlier this week he told Good Morning Britain how private citizens are not allowed to buy groceries. Instead local committees deliver food to his gate.
He said: "It is quite scary. Normally the streets are bustling. There's people dancing and singing on the streets. It's normally a very jovial place.
"At the moment it is very dead. You can feel the atmosphere."
Connor, who has lived in China for three years, spoke to The Sun about his ordeal last month.
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He said: “I was stunned when the doctors told me I was suffering from the virus. I thought I was going to die but I managed to beat it.
“I used the inhaler which helped control the cough and drank a hot whisky with honey until that ran out.
“It’s an old fashioned remedy but it seemed to do the trick."
Covid-19 pneumonia was first identified in Wuhan in central China and has since spread to every continent, with more than 95,000 cases and 3,286 deaths so far.
The UK has 87 known cases, a figure that is sure to rise as the chief medical officer warned a "significant epidemic" is likely.
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