Last March, Angie McGrath spent two weeks in hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19 and double pneumonia.
She was put on a ventilator to fight for her life - an experience she described as a 'nightmare'.
Thankfully, she survived, and has shared her experience of her time in ICU.
Last week Angie’s daughter Becci Mahon - as part of her Masters in UCD - made a podcast about their experience as a family.
It’s not a professional report: it was done at the kitchen table at home and it’s the simple story of one family and how they coped with COVID.
Becci’s aunt sent the podcast to the Pat Kenny Show because she felt it might help everyone think before taking any chances with the disease.
The experience started on Becci’s 21st birthday last year, when Angie became very ill.
That was the day she was “feeling at her worst”, eight days after her first symptoms.
She said: “I was feeling every symptom possible… I had sore bones, I had nausea, headache, chills, fever… my breathing had started to go, and taste had gone.
“The cough wasn’t that bad. I didn’t have a sore throat.”
A doctor told an exhausted Angie she had to go into hospital straight away.
She recalled: “I was very nervous… I don’t like doctors, nevermind hospitals.
“I was brought into an isolation room in casualty. I got progressively worse over the weekend.
“By the Monday morning… it was absolutely horrendous. A nurse came in and said I was being brought down to the ICU.”
Intensive care
Angie said she ‘never in a million years’ thought she was going to be brought to ICU and put on a ventilator.
She recalled: “A cold, icy chill really went through me. With nobody with me, I just had to text home.”
Becci said the worst part was being told to say goodbye to her mother ‘just in case’ the situation got worse.
Angie, meanwhile, recalled: “I was trying to talk to you all, knowing I may not make it.
“I never said anything I really wanted to say - it’s not like in the movies at all, where they say all the right thing.
“Then I was put under.”
Angie said the first day on the ventilator was a ‘nightmare’, and she felt like she was ‘waiting to die’.
She said: “I was sedated enough to not be panicking, but I was aware enough to know I didn’t want to go anywhere.
“I remember the exact point where I decided I was going to fight tooth and nail, and thinking I was too young and hadn’t said goodbye to my family.
“I remember making a plan to stay alive.”
'I thought it was a few hours'
Despite concerns Angie could be on a ventilator for several weeks, after around a week doctors raised the prospect of taking her off the breathing support.
After discussions with the family, the medics said they’d attempt it as Angie seemed like she was strong and willing to fight.
The news was good: an hour later Angie was able to speak to her family by phone again.
Angie said: “I remember getting a huge shock when the doctor said ‘did you have a nice rest Angie?’
“I thought it was a few hours… but then he said ‘you’ve been asleep for a week’. I couldn’t believe it - that was a big shock.”
Angie was ‘up and down’ for the next few days, with temperatures and breathing difficulties.
She then faced the shock of having to ‘learn to walk again’ as the muscles in her legs had weakened after a week on the ventilator.
She said: “I remember feeling very old when they had to teach me how to walk. But all went well, and the physios were great."
There were more long days ahead in the high dependency ward, but Angie said she thankfully had her phone and was able to video call people.
She said: “Anyone I FaceTimed just cried when they saw me, which was gas really.
"I was just so happy to see them - I wasn’t sad. But I could understand all the motions that were involved.”
A family impacted
Angie with her familyBecci, meanwhile, had her own COVID-19 experience while her mother was in hospital.
She explained: “I started to feel like I had really, really sore aches and bones… the worst headache.
"I thought it was all coming down from the crying and emotions of the day… but then it woke me up during the night.
"On the Tuesday morning, we knew it was COVID."
Angie, for her part, says she knew the moment she saw her daughter on a video call that she was sick.
Subsequent tests showed everyone in the family except Becci’s sister Amy had the virus.
However, Becci and her brother Ben were ultimately able to go and collect their mum from hospital - a day they all remember as being 'very emotional'.
Angie had been in hospital during the start of lockdown, and she said it was "very strange" to see no cars on the road while she was being driven home.
However, she said "words can't describe" how fantastic it felt to finally return to her family that day.
Looking back on the experience, Angie said: “I feel such enormous gratitude to all the ICU staff and A&E staff. They were absolutely incredible.
“To my family, sisters, friends and my community… I was completely overwhelmed with everyone’s support and kindness.”
