OTTAWA -- Ralph Field survived the biggest scare of his life.
“I was wired. I looked like the bionic man. So many cables coming out of me, a feeding tube, all kinds of things, catheters,” said Field.
The Barrhaven man tested positive for COVID-19 in late March. When his symptoms got worse he was admitted to the Queensway Carleton Hospital.
“It’s a scary time, you know. You’re on a ventilator for two or three weeks and people don’t know if you’re going to wake up again.”
Field spent three weeks in hospital, most of that time spent in the Intensive Care Unit.
For 16 of those days he was on a ventilator. Family members told him his heart flat lined three times, but for Field it’s all a blur.
Dialysis wasn’t working. When he was taken off it, his condition actually started to improve.
“A week ago they said let’s try it without it. Twice a day they would monitor me and do all kinds of things. My internal body actually healed itself,” Field said.
“They were shocked.”
His kidneys, heart, blood pressure all got better. On April 12, the ventilator was removed. Field began breathing on his own, again.
“When an emergency doctor stops at your door and says ‘Mr. Field, I can’t believe you’re here and this is what we do,’ it shows how sick I was.”
The 61-year-old was relatively healthy before contracting the COVID-19, but he did want to lose some weight. The virus took care of that.
“I feel great, look great, I’ve lost a bunch of weight, so all that gym work I had to do to lose all my shoulder weight is taken care of,” he laughed.
He says the frontline hospital staff that took care of him have “wings on their back.”
Field is excited to look forward though and catch up on some of the things he missed.
“Cuddling, believe it or not,” and a round of golf once the restrictions are lifted.
