'It's like a sadistic, mechanical beast' - COVID-19 survivor tells Gordon
East Coast Gold’s Gordon Graham had the privilege of speaking to Shane Manning - a British businessman living and working in Dubai. He is an Ironman triathlete, fit and strong and now he is a COVID-19 survivor. He tells East Coast Gold's Gordon Graham what it was like having COVID-19.
Shane was misdiagnosed when experiencing his
early Coronavirus symptoms which led to him going on a camping trip with family
and friends once he felt better, only to discover later – much to his horror - that
he’d been COVID-19 positive all along.
Shane shared with us his worries over who
he may’ve passed the virus on to; his concerns for his family; his healthcare
experience; the dark depths he dealt with while fighting for his life – and,
more recently, his recovery.
Listen to the full interview below.
“It’s so good to hear from someone who has
been through the cycle of infection, treatment and eventual recovery, as we
have all heard the stories (most of them terrifying) of the many infections
around the world,” says Gordon.
“We have all thought this is a nightmare we
were going to wake up from – only to realise that it’s not a bad dream but our
new reality.”
“We have learnt so much about this virus in
a short time - but we have so much more to learn. As Shane shares his story with us, we gained a
valuable reminder as to why – despite moving to level 4 - we need to be
disciplined about observing social distancing.”
“We often don’t talk about the recoveries -
which in South Africa is a remarkable one third of all cases as far as we know.
In the UAE, their stats at the time of writing this were 14 163 cases - with
new cases topping 500. They’ve lost 126 lives thus far and have 2 763 recoveries,”
adds Gordon.
“Thank you, Shane, for sharing a very personal story with us.”