A young Missouri woman wants her "terrifying" case of the coronavirus to convince others to stay home.
“In the beginning — I'm not afraid to even admit it — I was one of those people,” Brittany Greco says. “I was like, they're making such a bigger deal out of this than need be. Like, if we all just do the right thing and wash our hands, we'll be OK."
The otherwise healthy 27-year-old mother spent much of the last few weeks in and out of the hospital due to complications from COVID-19.
“I would have not left my house, gone anywhere, if I knew how miserable this was,” she says now.
At first, she thought she had allergies — she’d never dealt with them before, but figured that must be the cause of her cough and aches. But when she saw her fever spike, she went to the hospital.
“I took myself into the emergency room that first time and you know, they were like, ‘You have a virus, you're going to be all right,’” she says. “After that night, it was just all downhill.”
When she finally got tested, the results were positive, and within a day, she was in the ICU.
“I guess the best way I can explain it is, imagine if you jump in water and, you know, you have that feeling of, ‘I have to go up for air,’ and you can’t,” she described. “It is terrifying. I don’t think there’s any age where this wouldn’t be scary.”