‘The most difficult thing I’ve been through’: hallucinations, fever, pneumonia, but finally victory for this patient with COVID-19

SINGAPORE: At one point, there were so many tubes and devices attached to Bambang Sugeng Kajairi’s body that he was joking with family members that he was Iron Man.

He didn’t feel as invincible as the Marvel superhero.

First, a high fever seemed to plague his body. “I could feel the fever going up, and they told me my fever was going up pretty fast,” he recalled. “I think the fever was 39.8 (degrees Celsius) that night and I was 39.8 for several nights.”

Then strange hallucinations came a couple of nights after his stay at the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID).

They would come like thieves in the night. Sometimes at 11 p.m., sometimes at 1 a.m. Was he awake, was he asleep? In the feverish haze, the 55-year-old Singaporean couldn’t tell.

“I started hallucinating, but I didn’t tell the doctors that I was hallucinating until the moment I felt comfortable enough to tell them,” he recalled. “Because I didn’t know if hallucinations were part of what COVID-19 patients went through.”

Bambang, who is a businessman, began to see images that seemed completely random.

There would be one where he was in a Dutch bakery and was trying to buy a percentage of the company. In another, you might be wondering why you reported your temperature to an accounting firm.

“That was the scary part, and I think it was the temperature that was really playing on my mind,” he said. “Then I saw images of people who had passed away. They were very, very difficult nights … When those images appeared, I was very concerned.

“Finally, I managed to say it … and tell the doctors.” To their relief, they said that the hallucinations were normal.

Then came energy-depleting pneumonia. And Mr. Bambang had to receive 4 liters of oxygen through a nasal cannula to help him maintain his breathing.

“I will not lie, there was a day when I broke,” he recalled. “That was the day I thought I was at my lowest point, I was thinking, ‘How come I’m not getting better, why am I getting worse and worse?’

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“Was I scared? I think it took seven or eight days for everything I felt: ‘Wow, this is difficult.'”

WHEN ‘GREAT TIME’ CAME

All of this had started only a few days earlier in mid-March.

Bambang, director of local company Aqua Munda, had just returned from an urgent five-day business trip to the UK. There, he had also been trying to arrange for his son, who was studying there, to return to Singapore due to the COVID-19 situation.

“I had to get my son back, he was scheduled for an operation on March 18 in London,” said Bambang. “We were trying to determine if the operation was necessary (at the time), due to what was happening in the UK.”

“It turned out that on the eve of his operation, (the hospital) postponed it because it was considered nonessential.”

Hours after landing in Singapore, where he received his Notice of Home (SHN), Mr. Bambang began to feel “a little sick.”

“I wasn’t sure if it was jet lag,” he explained. “At my age, traveling is a bit painful. But I felt feverish, so I slept at around 2.30 in the morning, I woke up and I felt a little uncomfortable … I tried to sleep but the next morning I woke up and I found that my temperature was quite high. “

Following the advice of the People’s Association, which is the organization that tells people in an HHS to call initially if they need to go see a doctor, he visited the clinic closest to his home. There, the thermometer read 39.1 degrees Celsius. An ambulance was then dispatched to take him to NCID for analysis.

“It was then that I realized that I could probably have COVID-19,” he said. “It only crossed my mind at 39.1 because I came back from very tired trips. But when the temperature rose so high, that worried me a lot.”

After being evaluated at NCID, Mr. Bambang had to return home to await his results. The next morning, they told him it was COVID-19 positive.

“That hit me big time,” he said. “It was a bit of a numbness … There were two quite contradictory thoughts. The first was: ‘Thank God I’m in Singapore, because our death rate is so low’ … But at the same time, there was a sense of not know what I was going through. “

‘MY BODY WAS BEATING’

The turning point came eight days after his stay at NCID.

“They came up to me and said, ‘Look, your situation is not so good … Do you want to undergo a (clinical) trial of a drug?” Bambang recalled. “I thought about it quickly and thought I had nothing to lose … That was perhaps the best decision I made under the circumstances.”

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“Physically, I was tired, I was exhausted. At the peak (of my situation), I couldn’t sit for 30 minutes (or more), I felt exhausted.”

While Mr. Bambang didn’t know if he was actually given the drug or a placebo due to the nature of the trial, he did notice that things finally started to improve.

“Whatever it is, whether it was on the actual medication or the placebo side, I can tell you that … my recovery after starting was much better.

“My body was taking a beating,” he said. “I think psychologically I was in a bad place because I wasn’t sure what was happening to me.”

To Mr. Bambang’s delight, his temperature readings gradually decreased.

“My temperatures started to drop: 38.7, 38.5 and then the big breakthrough was the day they said it was 37.9,” he explained. “I was very happy even when I thought they were saying I was still feverish. Then it started to drop to 37.5, 37.3 and I knew that by then I had won the battle.”

But Bambang attributes his recovery to more than just the clinical trial. It was also the constant encouragement of vital doctors and nurses to help him get ahead.

“The doctors were saying, ‘Come on, you can do it! You’re here (until now)!’ They were very reassuring and said it was important that they also strengthen me mentally, “he said.

“The doctors calmed me down, told me not to worry, that they would help me get ahead. They told me that I had to go through this whole process. I had to go through the lowest point and then slowly things would start to improve. above.”

It was not just the medical staff that Bambang is effusive in his praise.

“It’s not just the doctors and the nurses, but also the cleaners … And they do this every day and they help many of us,” he said. “These guys are great and they would do it with a smile!” he said.

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There was also the moral support of family and friends that kept it going.

“They were very active in the chat groups, keeping me motivated,” Bambang recalled. “And then my colleagues from my days at SJI (St Joseph’s Institution) and CJC (Catholic Junior College) … we all got together again, two of us were in the hospital for the same thing … and the group just started to come together. No matter what religion we were from, we all prayed for each other.

“That massive support helped me get ahead. When you feel like a lot of people are approaching you, it encourages you, it encourages you. That makes a big difference.”

After being released from hospital after 16 days, Bambang believes it is his duty to also talk about what happened.

“The message should continue to come out, especially from those who have passed it, which is not a joke,” he explained. “You must be careful with your own safety and with your family.

“It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever been through in my life … This took a lot out of me.”