Mount Ommaney woman with COVID-19 pleads with people not to light fires

A Brisbane woman recovering from coronavirus has pleaded with people not to do the one thing that has caused her condition to worsen.

File photo. Picture: David Caird

A MOUNT Ommaney woman with coronavirus has asked people not to light fire pits because it has set back her recovery.

Sarah, 49, had a friend post a message on Facebook last night asking if people could refrain from lighting garden and patio fires at the moment.

“I feel a right cheek asking. As you know I currently have COVID-19,” she wrote.

“The smoke is really compromising my cough and sore throat. I’m currently getting over pneumonia and it makes me feel worse.”

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Sarah said she didn’t want to be hospitalised again, and while she closed her windows, it made little difference.

“I seem to be okay in the day but as evening comes and people start lighting their fires and the smoke starts, it’s awful.”

Speaking today about her ordeal, Sarah said both she and her husband had contracted COVID-19.

“It’s a bloody nightmare this virus,” she said.

Sarah said her husband was initially believed to have a chest infection, before she developed a sore throat and cough on March 22.

“They said we weren’t in the criteria to be tested,” she said.

“In that time, I’d had really bad fevers. And I’ve never had such a bad cough in my life. I was vomiting in my sleep,” she said.

“Then I went and got tested, and in that time, the paramedics came and got me because I was breathless.”

Sarah’s husband was also tested as his condition worsened, and he came back positive to COVID-19.

“When the physio said my lungs were starting to collapse, that was very scary,” she said.

“I was in emergency when they told me (the test was positive), but I knew I would be.”

Sarah spent a week in hospital with pneumonia before she was released last week, and while she didn’t need oxygen, said she’s never been so sick.

“I felt really good a few days ago thinking ‘yes, I’m getting my life back’, and then the last couple of days, the coughing has been really bad again.”

“I think it’s the fire pits. It’s really smoky and I just hope it stops. My throat just feels like its burning.”

Sarah also had a blunt message for anyone who isn’t taking the threat of the virus seriously.

“You’re very stupid. I have friends in the UK who’ve lost friends, and they were really fit. You don’t know how it’s going to affect you.”