Mexico City. “I am a Covid survivor. Wear a mask. Keep your distance ”. It is the motto of Gerardo Lazcano Campos “from here for life”, he says with a barely audible voice, after 41 days hospitalized, of which he was intubated 17. He wants to speak, tell about his experience, “that people know that it is better wear a mask and not an oxygen mask; It is better than being in the hospital without your family, alone and feeling like you are dying from lack of air ”.
“My biggest mistake was self-medicating and not going to the hospital on time,” says the 53-year-old dentist. “It was eating or breathing, talking or breathing. You feel like you are dying in life ”.
At the hospital “I saw dead people come out, they die out of nowhere. I could hear them coughing and after a while nothing ”. They were guys of 28, 35, 40 years old. He also saw others returning to their homes “and I said that is how I want to go.”
It is what he wants to talk, but he stops because he lacks strength, you hardly hear what he says. But he seems not to notice and keeps moving his mouth until his sister Ana Patricia asks him to rest for a moment.
Since March 8, Gerardo has been back at home and agreed to talk with The Day. Remember how the first two weeks passed, you met all the doctors and nurses by name. “We became friends. This is how I made a territory so as not to feel lonely ”. They told him that he was going well and they would soon release him, but the days continued to pass. “I despaired.”
Gerardo was treated in intensive care at the extension hospital at the Hermanos Rodríguez Autodrome of the IMSS, under the care of Dr. Leonel Quiñones, who informed Ana Patricia that his brother’s oxygenation had dropped and he was going to sleep to reduce his despair.
Another week passed and then the specialist realized that there was oxygen deficiency in the brain. The decision to intubate him came. 17 more days passed. The oxygenation fluctuated, but he never gave up, he struggled all the time and the ventilator was removed.
Favored by his good physical condition
Few patients exceed this level of severity. Many factors influence, Quiñones explained, especially the background of each individual. Gerardo does not smoke, does not drink alcohol and exercises, so he has a good muscle reserve.
That served a lot; Another decision he made when he was admitted: “go out, see my brothers, nothing of which I am tired or I can no longer”.
He arrived at the hospital after 20 days of enduring the symptoms. He guessed that he would need nothing more than his own care. He locked himself in his bedroom and no one could enter. His sisters brought him the medicines he asked for, they left the food at the door, but they did not notice when he stopped eating. It took at least three days for Ana Patricia to find him on the bed with practically no air.
The Lazcano Campos family is large; most live at the same address. There are seven siblings, several with their respective partners, and a score of nephews. Since December, several of its members have fallen ill. Gerardo helped to get medicines and oxygen tanks.
Ana Patricia comments that her husband was also infected. She took care of him and that her brother was going to see her, quickly, in the street to “take my things and leave.”
“We were very busy,” says she, who underwent several screening tests and all have come back negative. You recently learned that you have antibodies to the coronavirus. “I got infected and I didn’t realize it,” she says, still surprised.
Now take care of Gerardo. It helps him when coughing spells come, he checks that the oxygen concentrator works well.
Ana Patricia and her family are in charge of feeding him, maintaining hygiene, accompanying him and following medical recommendations, although Gerardo says – with a broad smile – that he is missing one: “go on vacation to Cancun.”
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