Ruby Princess passenger Paul Faraguna won COVID battle doctors thought him doomed to lose
He was the first SA COVID patient to enter ICU and the last to leave. Now Paul Faraguna is slowly on the mend at home after surviving a battle doctors feared would kill him.
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As Paul Faraguna lay on a ventilator in an induced coma for five long weeks in the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s intensive care unit, the state’s most experienced doctors feared the worst.
The 68-year-old was ravaged by coronavirus contracted while he was holidaying on the Ruby Princess cruise ship.
His wife of 45 years, Robyn, and their adult children, Adam, 42, and Stacey, 40, were warned that if he didn’t die, he was likely to have suffered life-changing brain damage.
But in a “miracle” that has stunned medicos, today he is recovering in his eastern suburbs home after being discharged from Modbury Hospital’s rehabilitation facility a fortnight ago.
“The doctors didn’t expect me to survive,” said Mr Faraguna, who became the state’s first COVID-19 patient to be admitted to the RAH’s intensive care unit (ICU) on March 24.
“They did not think I would make it, I was so bad.”
After five weeks in an induced coma, Mr Faraguna left the ICU on April 30 and transferred to a general ward, where he spent another three weeks before finally becoming the last virus case to be discharged from the RAH on May 21.
Cheering staff formed a guard of honour as their miracle man made his exit, with physiotherapists, Maddie and Kerryn, who were helping him walk again, by his side. “When I woke from my coma, I was just oblivious to what had happened,” he told The Advertiser.
“I just thought I had been in hospital overnight. I was actually quite shocked about it.
“To hear how long I had actually been there, I couldn’t believe it. They told Robyn to expect the worst but if I did make it, I could possibly have brain damage.
“That has been the hardest aspect for my family, who couldn’t see me due to the restrictions and because I was so contagious. When I came out of the coma, it took me a couple of weeks to ‘wake up’.”
Speaking publicly for the first time, Mr Faraguna – a retired railways technical officer – laid bare his health battles and expressed his sadness for the four virus patients who have died.
Recovery at his Rosslyn Park home has been slow but he hopes to return to full strength within months.
He is telling his “public interest” story to remind South Australians of COVID-19’s dangers, but also to publicly thank the heroic staff who fought for his life as he came perilously close to dying.
Mr Faraguna, his 64-year-old wife and two of their close friends had been on holiday together when they all contracted the virus, becoming part of the state’s cluster of 89 people infected on the Ruby Princess.
All have now recovered.
Mr Faraguna noticed his first symptom on Thursday, March 19, when the “perfect” cruise ended in Sydney.
He started feeling fatigued with a slight temperature but dismissed it as a mild cold.
He had a nap at his daughter’s Neutral Bay home, on Sydney’s lower north shore, then flew home that afternoon on Jetstar flight JQ768, oblivious to the danger he was now in.
The next day, he felt he was on the mend but spiked a high fever that night and drove himself to the RAH on Saturday to have a virus test.
From there, his memory is a “total blank”. He cannot recall being admitted to the hospital’s main COVID-19 ward or even speaking with people after his positive test result.
His condition rapidly deteriorated and on March 24 – three days after going to hospital – he was admitted to the ICU, where doctors desperately tried to stave off multiple organ failure as the virus attacked his healthy body.
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He lost 15kg, and much of his strength but a CT scan has cleared him of brain damage.
He is, however, fighting ongoing kidney and heart problems as well as viral pneumonia side effects. But he hopes intensive rehab will soon help him walk unaided.
“Before COVID, I was pretty fit,” he said. “We would walk from Waterfull Gully to Mt Lofty at least once a week and I wouldn’t really get puffed.
“When I first woke I was really weak. I couldn’t even stand. Now I can gently walk with a cane. Doctors kept telling me my fitness levels were a key reason why I survived.”
Thanking friends at his Tranmere Catholic parish, and “many” others, for their prayers, Mr Faraguna credited his “miracle” survival to the “amazing” SA Health staff.
“They are the true heroes,” he said.
“I have already thanked them all profusely but I just want to thank them again publicly from the bottom of my heart.”
