When you think COVID-19 is BS: 'Major, major wake-up call' for Vaughan man
Part 1 of a 3-part series on the younger victims of COVID-19 during the pandemic's third wave
If you asked Alfredo DiGenova about COVID-19 earlier this year, he might have laughed.
The Vaughan resident thought fear over the big bad coronavirus was "BS."
I shrugged it off, like a joke," he says, pausing for a minute. "It's not a joke."
DiGenova tries to explain what happened to him, but it's hard. His normally strong voice is weak. He has to stop between words to breathe and cough.
His wife got sick first. She had a rough couple of days with a fever and coughing. The kids also got it, but it was just like a common cold. He tested positive, but felt fine.
At first, wasn't worried. He had a few friends who'd also had it and quarantined, and it was no big deal. He was healthy.
Then it hit me like a f------ truck. Fever 99-plus, body pains, aching joints and spine. Excruciating. It was killing me, beyond anything I've ever experienced."
He's fuzzy on dates right now; the brain still a little foggy, but for the first while, the daily calls from public health were reassuring - until it got much worse.
I couldn't take a breath; burning lungs and upper back. I can handle pain, but I couldn't handle this."
Public health advised him to go to the hospital.
Driving him there felt surreal, his wife, Carmela, recalls.
It was the start of the worst weeks of her life.
I felt so helpless. Kissing my husband goodbye seemed like a nightmare. Was my husband coming home? Was this the end?"
Alfredo had the same thoughts. Was COVID-19 going to take him? Would he ever see his wife, kids, and family again?
At Cortellucci Vaughan hospital, they immediately put him on oxygen 24-7. For two weeks, he was unable to leave his room, get a change of clothes, or have visitors.
He lost more than 25 pounds in 10 days.
It's just consumed me. I feel frail, weak."
He was able to return home this weekend, where he continues breathing exercises and, when he can, walking a bit to make sure he doesn't get clots in his legs. Even eating leaves him winded.
This is so unlike him, Carmela says. He was like a tank" before this.
"I worked out every day, ate healthy," Alfredo says. I was like a bull."
They aren't sure how COVID-19 found his family. He and his wife are realtors, in and out of homes all day.
The real estate industry is on fire right now. They were working around the clock, trying to maintain safety, wearing masks and gloves, but did someone bring it into one of the homes they were selling? She was in stores to buy products for staging. Did she touch her face after the debit machine?
He'd sit in his hospital room and think about this, about all the ways COVID-19 can get into homes. You're shopping and open your wallet or purse after touching things in the store, or touch your car door handle - now the wallet/purse/handle are infected. He watches the news on TV and hears about all the people dying. He warns his friends and family through text, phone and social media to take this seriously.
And it's weird: now that he's told people he had COVID-19, people are coming out of the woodwork to share they'd had it, too, but they'd kept quiet about it.
I don't understand. Why aren't people talking about it more? It's just so hush-hush. But when you know people who had it, it really makes a difference."
When he gets back on his feet, Alfredo vows to do better, to take it up a notch, but he doesn't know when that will be.
It's crazy not knowing when you go into hospital if you're coming out or not."
Pause.
Breathe.
This is serious s---. It's real ... It's been a major, major wake-up call for me.
I lead a fantastic life.
This is not the way I want to go out."
Next: Part 2: A healthy and fit mother and medic describes the "bizarre" symptoms she still battles after COVID-19
Part 3: Part 2: 'Unspeakable toll for generations'
Story behind the story: Public health is reporting a worrisome trend: an increasing number of younger patients contracting COVID-19. Reporter Kim Zarzour shares the personal stories behind the statistics