Patient X: The call that changed my life and the turmoil that came next

It was the phone call that changed his life forever. Now Patient X, a young Brisbane man infected with Covid in a recent cluster, explains the turmoil that happened next.

A young Brisbane man infected with Covid in the southeast Queensland Delta cluster opens up on the turmoil of being Patient X.

I packed up the last of my things, cleared my desk and headed off to start some R & R. I drove to see my grandma, who wasn’t home. I thought while I’m on this side of town, I’ll visit my Aunty at her work. I arrived and saw all the beautiful elderly ladies and gentlemen being packed up in the vans to be taken back home after their day at respite. Conscious of everything happening in the COVID world I avoided any interactions with them as they are most vulnerable. Saw my Aunty had some good laughs and headed back home to start my time off.

Monday rolled around, my partner and I had a relaxing Sunday in our Little Red Barn, in the hinterland. We had dinner planned that night and so we started our adventure to our favourite restaurant. En route, we pulled up, parked and I had this instant urge to cough uncontrollably; was this COVID ?

James ran into the corner store to grab me some cough lollies as I just thought something went down the part of my throat. I was so worried that people were judging me, but I honestly thought it was just a random tickle in my throat. We sat down to have dinner. We had two metres between each table. Self-conscious, I was drinking peppermint tea to soothe my throat. I was fine, was I just being so dramatic?

We finally left the restaurant, went to the corner shop again where I got some more tea and chocolate for dessert.

Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Jono Searle

Driving home, the coughing fits started again and progressively was getting worse, out of the blue. Went to sleep that night, feeling okay, didn’t cough much and woke up feeling surprisingly okay.

I was becoming lethargic during the day and progressively getting worse. I wasn’t sure what was happening. We finally got home and all I wanted to do was sleep. We spoke with my Aunty and the family that night and I heard she was unwell and so was my cousin. They just had flu symptoms. Was this the start of something more serious?

My health was declining, so was my breathing, I couldn’t talk without having a coughing fit and I couldn’t walk without being breathless. I was down and out for the next two days with extreme fevers, out of control coughing and splattering.

I woke up Thursday feeling human (sort of). I went out that night to get take away dinner as we had no food left in the house and thought, is this risky? Should I be doing this? But I thought I’m not sick anymore, whatever I had is gone now.

At 2am in the morning, my phone was ringing non-stop with calls from my family. My Aunty and cousin had received a call from Queensland Health saying they were COVID positive. Was this a practical joke? Sadly two hours later the ambulance took them away to the Sunshine Coast hospital for treatment.

Until today, I had never had a COVID test and I was scared of someone sticking a long stick up my nose poking out my eyes. This was not how I saw my Saturday morning going.

Arriving at the test clinic, I was nervous as hell about what I was getting myself into, the line-up was one hour long and I honestly just wanted to reverse and not face the music of what was ahead of me. My health was declining, again.

Test done, went home to isolate and hope for my negative result. My health rapidly declined, I was breathless and couldn’t sleep with a lack of oxygen and going through the fevers, it was honestly an out of body experience.

Then the phone call.

“Hi, This is Natalie from Metro North, just advising you are COVID positive, we will be sending an ambulance to pick you from your home, how are you feeling?”

Not knowing what to say, I told them everything about my rapidly declining health and how I had serious breathing problems. I had a million and one things running through my brain, where have I been, who have I seen and what will happen next?

Ambulance arrived at our home and escorted me off to the Royal Brisbane Hospital. My world was spinning. Crying uncontrollably in the back of the Ambulance, I felt so scared.

I arrived at the hospital, they escorted me upstairs in hazmat suits and rolled me down the hallway to my room. The only thing that was getting me through was the staff,

they are so lovely.

The nurse was explaining everything to me and pretty much said, this is it for the next 14 days. We won’t come in. You can do your own observations with the machine next to you. Call us on the phone if you need anything. Four walls, no balcony, no Television however… decent food it wasn’t bad!

My first night’s sleep was by far the most uncomfortable sleep I think I have ever had.

They wouldn’t give me any relief for my breathing and they continued to monitor me and check my vitals to see how I was travelling.

9am the day after I was admitted, I had just finished breakfast and I was sitting on my bed. The doctors and nurses rolled in unannounced and were explaining what’s next as my vitals were dangerously low. They fitted a cannula for the IV drip and gave me steroids and hooked me up to a ventilator to assist with my breathing. It was like sweet relief. My body was rejoicing.

Life after this is different, you walk out and feel like all your problems are going to go away. Sadly, it won’t, you’re mentally disturbed from the mess you left behind and the people you were responsible for passing the virus on to that got locked up. That’s how I feel anyway.

We need more education and stories about people’s struggles through this, it’s not talked about

enough and it doesn’t get published. Why are we scared?

One thing I was truly shocked about during this ordeal is that not one person reached out from the hospital or the medical staff about how my mental health was holding up.