Coronavirus Australia: Melbourne woman pregnant with twins in ICU with COVID-19

A Melbourne woman preparing to give birth to twins can hardly breathe without a ventilator in a shocking video shared by her partner from ICU.

If you still need a reason to wear a mask in public in Victoria, look no further than Kaillee Dyke.

The Melbourne woman is in the intensive care unit at Royal Melbourne Hospital on a ventilator after being struck down by coronavirus. And she’s pregnant with twins.

Ms Dyke’s partner, Chris Lassig, shared her story on social media. He wrote that both himself and Ms Dyke were diagnosed with COVID-19 and that she is slowly making progress but took some time to turn the corner.

“For those who haven’t heard the news, this post may be a bit of a shock,” Mr Lassig wrote.

“Kaillee and I have both had COVID-19, and while I’ve fully recovered she is still very sick.”

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He shared a video of Ms Dyke taken last Saturday at the couple’s home. It showed her struggling to breathe.

“Shortly after recording it though, she was taken in an ambulance to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where they put her on oxygen in intensive care.

“She’s been there a week now, on a ventilator and sedated so she’s unaware of what’s going on. But she’s slowly making progress, breathing more and more by herself with the machine only providing back-up.

“It’s now a matter of waiting until her lungs have healed enough to work on their own. The doctors say with COVID-19 it’s very hard to predict, but hopefully it’ll be soon.”

Melbourne woman Kaillee Dyke is in hospital with COVID-19 and is 27 weeks pregnant with twins.

Posted by Chris Lassig on Friday, 17 July 2020

Mr Lassig shared an ultrasound image of one of the couple’s twins as well as a message from Ms Dyke about the need to wear masks.

He said the couple spoke about that issue before she got sick and she told him: “If the government is going to say to wear masks, then just do it. They’re not overreacting with the measures that they’ve put in place, they’re clearly there for a reason. And … anybody can get it.”

He said the couple had been cautious and were not sure where they became infected.

“We don’t know anyone else who’s had it, and we both thought we were being cautious,” he wrote.

“To me, that shows how difficult it is to protect yourself as an individual, and so it’s only by acting together that we can beat it.”

The message is an important one as Victoria today recorded another 363 cases of COVID-19 and the Premier announced three more deaths.

He also told reporters that from Thursday morning everybody in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire will be forced to wear a mask in public.

Those caught without one outside the home will be slapped with a $200 fine.

Ms Dyke’s diagnosis is a reminder that the virus can impact anyone, regardless of age.

A Victorian man in his 30s was admitted to hospital and spent time in intensive care last week after being struck down by coronavirus, making him one of the youngest Australians admitted to ICU with the illness so far.

At the time, Victoria’s intensive care units were filling up with patients from all age groups, including two men and two women in their 40s, one woman and four men in their 50s, four men and four women in their 60s and three men and three women in their 70s.

The federal government has thrown its support behind the announcement that the wearing of face masks will be mandatory from 11:59pm on Wednesday night.

“If you are out of your home for one of the four permitted reasons, then you need to be wearing a mask and I stress – or a face covering,” Premier Daniel Andrews announced Sunday.

“It need to stress it not be a hospital-grade mask, it not be one of the handmade masks like I was wearing when I came in today. It can be a scarf, it can be a homemade mask.”

Anyone in Greater Melbourne or Mitchell Shire caught without a mask or face covering will be fined $200.

Federal health Minister Greg Hunt says Victoria is at the point where masks are now “necessary” in the state and says federal officials “fully and completely support”.

“It is necessary, and we are sorry that it has reached this point for all those who were affected. But this is about saving lives and protecting lives.”

He said face masks would not be mandatory across the country and that “at this stage, the medical expert panel hasn’t identified a level such as that in other states and territories”.

Meanwhile, Mr Andrews said an order of at least 2.5 million masks was on its way to Melbourne, with the “first significant batch” expected to arrive this week.

He told reporters “common sense” will guide when people need to don a mask, adding the decision had been made on the advice of Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton.