Johannes Sandnes’ corona nightmare was to start just a few days after the closure of Norway. To begin with, both he and his friends were skeptical of the new virus that was ravaging the world.
– What was initially thought was that it was just a matter of a mild flu. We knew very little about the virus then and thought that it only affected older people, Sandnes says to Dagbladet.
It was the newspaper iFinnmark who first mentioned the case.
Before Sandnes became seriously ill, he and his friends made fun of the corona. He tells the newspaper.
– We partyed quite hard the weekend before, and we were in a hotel room here in the city and we partyed that weekend. None of us thought we could get sick, it was completely unreal to think. We just sat and flirted with the corona and said: Now it shut down. Yes, yes, that’s fine, Sandnes tells iFinnmark.
Now, however, he has completely different thoughts about the virus.
In retrospect, corona disease is a little more than a common flu. What is scary is when it develops into a worse disease and bilateral pneumonia like I had, he says.
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Became serious quickly
On Thursday 12 March 2020, the Government shut down the country. Already on Monday, Sandnes began to notice the symptoms, and after a few days, the sense of smell and taste also disappeared. Still, he thought it would all go away on its own.
– I never considered contacting the doctor in the beginning. I thought it was the flu and that it would go away on its own, says Sandnes.
Gradually, the course of his illness began to look considerably more serious. With a cold cloth on his head and antipyretics, his mother finally convinced him to contact the doctor. On Monday, March 23, he contacted the hospital, and was immediately offered an ambulance.
Infected by mutant virus – two in hospital
He was transported straight to the respiratory clinic at the hospital in Tromsø. There, they concluded that it was reasonably certain that he had bilateral pneumonia resulting from corona. Thus, he was so ill that they sent him on to the hospital.
– Let me put it this way: The day I arrived at the hospital, it becomes very black for me. I remember little after that, says Sandnes.
– The fever is rising
When Sandnes arrived at the hospital in Tromsø, they were first to measure his temperature. Then he was in good spirits, and felt relatively fine in shape. The temperature, however, showed something else.
– 39.3 or 39.5 degrees I think it was first. Then you take every three or five minutes. And the fever rises. 39.7, then 39.9 and 40.1. At 40.3, I feel my gaze begin to flicker. Then they are on their way to get an anesthetist to consider putting me on a respirator, Sandnes tells iFinnmark.
The next day he is put on a respirator. He remembers nothing, and the 15 dramatic days in the respirator, Sandnes has been retold by the health personnel and the family.
– It was really most dramatic for those around me, and not so much for me because I was completely gone, Sandnes says to Dagbladet.
According to the Norwegian Intensive Care Unit, a distinction is made between respirator support where the patient receives breathing assistance from a tight face mask and is still awake, and treatment with breathing tubes where you are in a kind of anesthesia. Sandnes received the latter treatment.
He was also one of the few in his age group who until then had been treated in the intensive care unit. According to the National Institute of Public Health’s weekly report from the week Sandnes was placed on a respirator, he was one of seven in the age group 30 to 39 years who had been or were admitted to the intensive care unit between 10 and 30 March 2020.
Thought he was in Sweden
After 15 days on a respirator, he finally wakes up to the doctors’ excitement. Sandnes tells iFinnmark that the doctors told him that they thought it looked ugly for a while.
As he woke up, the doctors began to ask him several questions. When they asked him where he thought he was, he answered Uddevalla in Sweden. He probably said that because someone at the hospital spoke Swedish.
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– I did not have lacing on where I was. They also asked what day it was, and I had no idea. I guessed it was Wednesday, and by chance it was a Wednesday. But it was pure tipping, says Sandnes.
– I could not feel my legs either, so I did not think I had feet. I had to check if they were there, he adds.
Hard to come back
Although it is difficult for Sandnes to remember it specifically, he tells Dagbladet that he thinks he was in the hospital for about 23 days in total.
Getting back to everyday life has been a demanding task for Sandnes. After returning from the hospital, it was difficult for him to concentrate. It was especially hard on the Pharmacy Studies that he is doing.
– The lectures last for 45 minutes, and I managed to concentrate for a maximum of half an hour, says Sandnes.
Furthermore, he says that he was only back to normal in November 2020. Nevertheless, he still experiences problems with short-term memory, but otherwise his health is good.
Why exactly Sandnes should get so seriously ill from corona is still a mystery to doctors.
– I have not been told anything about exactly why I became so ill. I have had an X-ray examination of the lungs afterwards, and the doctors say that they may see some signs of lymph nodes, but that is not something they can say for sure. So it basically looks nice, says Sandnes.
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