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Former NHL executor Georges Laraque, who is in a Quebec hospital after contracting COVID-19, said his condition was constantly improving, but that people needed to take their respiratory illness seriously.
FILE PHOTO: Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada and Bourassa midterm candidate, Georges Laraque, smiles after the opening of his new campaign office at Bourassa Driving in Montreal on August 15, 2013. REUTERS / Christinne Muschi
REUTERS: Former NHL executor Georges Laraque, who is in a Quebec hospital after contracting COVID-19, said his condition was constantly improving, but that people should take their respiratory illness seriously.
In a series of videos posted over the weekend, the 43-year-old Montreal native said he was training for a marathon and delivering food to the elderly when he got sick.
After some trips to the hospital, asthmatic Laraque said he was finally able to be tested for the disease despite being told there was a shortage of evidence.
The test was positive and he was admitted to the hospital on Thursday, where he developed pneumonia in both lungs and suffered from night fevers.
But in the most recent video, he said he slept through the night without a fever and was beginning to feel better.
Laraque praised the health workers who treated him at the Charles-LeMoyne Hospital in Longueuil, near Montreal, as well as the doctors and nurses who help people fight the disease worldwide. COVID-19 is caused by the new coronavirus.
“You are putting your health at risk just to help me,” he said in a self-shooting video marked by coughing fits that showed him hooked up to an oxygen tank.
“It’s crazy because I was running six days a week, 10 kilometers a day, to prepare for a marathon. I was doing that for months.”
“Now after COVID attacked my lungs, I can’t even get up to brush my teeth without a fight,” said former Edmonton Oiler, Phoenix Coyote, Pittsburgh Penguin and Montreal Canadien, who retired from the National Hockey League in 2010. .
“It is the worst thing in history. It takes all my energy to get up,” he said.
He also rejected suggestions from some online that he was not really ill.
“Are you kidding me?” he said. “They have no idea. This is serious business.”
There have been 60,503 cases of COVID-19 in Canada and nearly 3,800 deaths, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.
Laraque, who lives in Edmonton, Alberta, also criticized Quebec’s plan to reopen primary schools this month. Quebec has the most deaths from the disease than any other Canadian province.
“If in Quebec we are limited in the amount of evidence we have, why are we reopening schools to children? Obviously, there will not be enough tests to evaluate all children in school.”
“It will not be a safe environment for parents when children return to school or for teachers who are already underpaid,” he said.
“For two months of schools, is it worth it?”
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Peter Cooney edition)
