ZAGREB, September 25, 2020 — Darije Petković from Zagreb shares his story about the turbulent experience he had with COVID-19. “This is by no means a good comparison with the flu,” he exclaims.
Toward the end of June, he felt tingling in his body and weakness and discomfort. He measured his temperature and when he saw that it was 37.3 degrees, he thought: “This is not good”. After that, an extended stay in the hospital followed. Darije Petković shares his story.
“People often say ‘it’s just the flu’. I have had the flu several times and I can say that the flu is child’s play in comparison to COVID-19,” explained Darije Petković. The 46-year-old professional photographer fought for his life in the hospital after he got infected with the coronavirus.
COVID-19 Not Good Comparison with Flu in Duration or Consequences
“It is by no means a good comparison with the flu,” said Petković. There is a big difference in how you feel and how long it lasts, as well as the consequences that COVID-19 can cause.
Petković described to HRT how everything started. A tingling in his body, along with weakness and discomfort made him suspicious about his condition. Consequently, he measured his temperature and when he saw that it was 37.3, he thought: “This is not good”. Petković contacted his doctor and he sent him for COVID-19 testing. The first test was negative, but the image showed double pneumonia. His situation got worse and only the second test showed that he was positive for COVID-19.
He was admitted to the hospital, where he was connected to oxygen and so the 26-day hospital treatment began.
“You think you’re bad, but you’re not. You will become bad in a few days,” he said. He added that he had reached that stage that he could not even take three steps.
Could Not Talk, Energy Loss, Like Someone ‘Sucked Everything Out of You’
“You can’t talk and lose all your energy as if someone sucked everything out of you,” he explains about his COVID-19 experience.
It took him an hour to gather strength to get to the sink. He also described what the lung scan looked like. With a bottle of oxygen in the wheelchair, they brought him to the scanner. When they asked him to move a little during the scan, he was in such a bad shape that he was not capable of moving and fell. After that, they realized that he was very ill and a transfer to the intensive care unit followed.
“Most people stay for seven to ten days. I stayed almost three times longer because I had a more severe form of COVID-19,” he said.
It is not known how and where he got infected but he says that fortunately, he did not infect anyone else. He also said that he still isn’t completely in the condition he was in before, and has also noticed significant hair loss.
“As for people who do not believe and who think that COVID-19 is all nonsense: This is one of the reasons why I agreed to talk to you. To make the people aware,” he said to HRT.
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