Chen Mu-min (陳牧民), deputy head of Taiwan’s diplomatic mission in India, on Thursday described his experience contracting COVID-19 as “a trip to death’s door.”
In an article published on Taichung Hospital’s Web site, Chen, who is deputy head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India, said that when the outbreak escalated in India in March, he thought he would be safe if he followed prevention protocols, such as wearing a mask, frequently washing his hands and disinfecting his personal belongings.
However, on April 28, he began developing flu-like symptoms, and three days later, after he had lost his sense of smell and had diarrhea, he was tested for COVID-19.
When the results of the polymerase chain reaction test came back on May 4, it confirmed that Chen had contracted COVID-19, and a computed tomography scan the next day showed the virus had compromised 52 percent of his lungs, he said.
On May 6, he began calling doctors in New Delhi to obtain an oxygen tank because he was having difficulty breathing, but was told that the equipment was available only in hospitals.
His office called several hospitals, but there were no available beds, he said.
With the help of his family in Taiwan, Chen was able to obtain an oxygen compressor, which helped increase his blood oxygen saturation level from 93 percent to 96 percent.
On May 8, he returned to Taiwan on an air ambulance and was admitted to Taichung Hospital, where he was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 and to have pulmonary infiltrates.
Chen had spent the previous 10 days alone in his apartment in New Delhi, he said.
“Looking back on those days, it was like a trip to death’s door,” he wrote. “More than half of my lungs were compromised within six days of experiencing the first symptoms.”
Several other center staff members also contracted COVID-19, and their symptoms all differed, he said.
“What terrified me most was that it took two or three tests to confirm some of those cases, which proved that the virus is really cunning,” Chen wrote.
Chen Tsung-Chia (陳宗家), a Taichung Hospital physician, said that COVID-19 infections can advance rapidly, with the symptoms progressing from mild to severe in a short amount of time.
Chen Mu-min’s article confirmed this, Chen Tsung-Chia said, adding that it could be difficult to tell early on whether a person has contracted COVID-19 because the initial symptoms could be quite mild.
“It is even harder to determine where you contracted the virus,” he said.
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