Hamilton ICU doctor says getting COVID was like ‘being hit by a train’

COVID found Dr. Sunjay Sharma just as Ontario started letting its guard down.

The medical director of Hamilton General Hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) had avoided the virus for two years while caring for the sickest COVID patients.

In fact, just days earlier he'd been talking to colleagues about how he dodged the virus despite being so close to it for so long because measures to stop the spread really worked.

I vividly remember saying that and then like 10 days later I got sick," said Sharma. I was not expecting to get COVID at all."

But by around March 10, he was staring at a positive result on a rapid antigen test.

I didn't believe it," said Sharma. I was totally shocked."

The timing was key: the more transmissible BA.2 Omicron subvariant was dominant and Ontario had lifted proof-of-vaccination requirements and dropped capacity limits for indoor public settings on March 1.

I certainly don't think I got it in the hospital because I was surrounded by COVID patients for the last two years and never got sick," said Sharma. I think this was directly as things started to loosen up outside of the hospital. I think this is a direct result of getting COVID in the community - likely from that increased virulence of the strain, but also, people being fatigued and then the government starting to loosen its restrictions. I think it was kind of a perfect storm."

The infection came at one of the worst possible times as Hamilton Health Sciences struggled to staff its overcrowded hospitals while increasing numbers of its workforce were self-isolating. As of Tuesday, 480 Hamilton hospital staff and physicians were off work.

The health human resources piece in the hospitals is precarious - not just in Hamilton, but everywhere," said Sharma. We have more and more people going off sick with COVID, and it's really impacting our ability to staff units ... You're out of commission for 10 days."

It was the first time Sharma can remember being off work sick. COVID rapidly progressed from a scratchy throat and sniffles - that he originally mistook for allergies - to an illness like nothing he'd experienced before.

I was down for the count," he said. I got super sick - really bad fevers, uncontrollable chills, my whole body ached and I was in bed for probably four or five days completely unable to move ... It's like being sicker than you've ever been before and really not having the ability to do anything other than lie in bed. It's like being hit by a train to be honest."

Despite having no underlying health conditions and being lower risk at age 42, Sharma believes he would have ended up in his own ICU if he didn't have three COVID shots.

I'm a hundred per cent convinced I would have been in the hospital admitted had I not been vaccinated," he said. What I'm hoping people understand is that getting vaccinated, you may still get it ... The vaccine definitely prevented me from being ... in the hospital and maybe even in the ICU."

Hamilton has seen a slow but steady increase of COVID patients as the sixth wave has potentially reached its height. The city's hospitals were caring for 123 COVID patients Tuesday compared to 90 on April 14 and 78 on April 13

I'm a young, healthy person ... and I got quite sick," said Sharma. I can only imagine someone that's either got health problems or is older than me. Because of how transmissible this is, it would just take a small percentage of people that end up in the hospital and things would go off the rails again."

Getting COVID has also brought home to Sharma how easily Omicron spreads. He quarantined himself in a different part of the house from his family and wore N95 masks to no avail.

My entire family got it," he said. My wife and my three-year-old and my one-and-a-half-year-old all ended up testing positive and all got quite sick."

Weeks later, Sharma is still fatigued and his wife's sense of taste and smell is just starting to slowly return.

What it has done for me is put a fine point on just how transmissible this current variant is and how if we don't have a good set of vaccinations and if we don't take responsibility for public health measures than it could get out of control," he said. I know we're all fatigued from the last two years, but you don't want to celebrate five yards from the victory line and then lose the race. I think we're in danger right now of doing that."

Sharma said the bottom line is Ontarians need to voluntarily continue with public health measures like masks.

It's the preservation of our health-care resources that everyone will ultimately need at some point, whether it's for COVID or not," he said. You're doing your part to ensure that you have a health-care system to access if you're being responsible."

Joanna Frketich is a health reporter at The Spectator. jfrketich@thespec.com