I would watch other patients sleep as I feared I wouldn’t wake up if I slept, says Covid-19 survivor

Florence Wana fought Covid-19 for three weeks while also battling Type 2 diabetes. Picture: Supplied

Florence Wana fought Covid-19 for three weeks while also battling Type 2 diabetes. Picture: Supplied

Published Aug 12, 2020

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Johannesburg - The biggest fear for Florence Wana, a Covid-19 survivor, was not dying from the virus but leaving her two young daughters without a mother.

This propelled her to fight the unseen enemy for three weeks while also battling Type 2 diabetes.

Wana, 35, from Eersterivier, Cape Town, was discharged from the isolation centre at Lagoon Beach Hotel last Wednesday after fighting a difficult battle against the coronavirus.

The publisher told The Star last Thursday that her coronavirus journey began on July 16 after she was drenched in rain following a workshop. The mother of two girls, aged 7 and 12, said she bought different medication the next day, thinking she would wake up feeling better.

However, two days later she lost her sense of smell and taste and had a persistent migraine.

“I felt so cold but I was sweating. At the same time, when I turned on my heater I was okay, but if I left my bedroom, the cold air I inhaled felt painful, so I had to put my hand over my nose. I felt the cold in my bones,” she said.

That evening, she asked her boyfriend to call an ambulance.

“We went to Groote Schuur Hospital and they took my blood pressure.

My sugar level was four and my temperature was 39.

“I was sweating but I was still feeling cold and it felt, like a horse was on my chest, so they quickly brought an oxygen tank. I was told I wouldn’t be able to go home any time soon,” she said.

Wana was admitted and tested for coronavirus. However, her first results were inconclusive and her second test came back negative the following day.

“One of the doctors said something was wrong so they did an X-ray. They found something wrong in my chest and they said I had Covid-19 pneumonia,” she said.

The next day, on Monday, July 22, she was tested for the third time and her results came back positive.

“I was very paranoid after I got the results. I would wake up at 2am or 3am and watch the other patients sleep because I had a feeling that if I slept, I wouldn’t wake up,” she said.

While she was at the hospital, Wana felt very alone because she couldn’t see her children, her father and her siblings. However she tried to stay positive at all times.

“From the last week of July, I started to train myself to breath without the oxygen, and I’d walk around the hospital to stretch my legs, but I had other symptoms where it felt like I was constantly stepping on needles,” she said.

On Monday last week, Wana was transferred to the isolation centre in Bloubergstrand until she was discharged on Wednesday.

“My kids, and the thought of them not having a mother, kept me going. It’s not child’s play to lose a mother, and it’s not something you’d like to experience, because I’ve been through it. My mom passed away in 2008, two days after I gave birth to my daughter,” she said.

Wana said she would WhatsApp video call her girls every morning to see their faces.

“They kept me going, and I couldn’t allow myself to give in,” she said, advising other patients to keep their faith while they fought the virus. We need to be positive and be able to trust God in this, even though it’s very difficult,” she said.

The Star

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Covid-19