Life as a coronavirus patient in Wuhan during its darkest hour
- First in a series exploring the different experiences of Covid-19 survivors from around the world
- In Wuhan, a primary schoolteacher and her elderly parents became sick just as the health system collapsed
Even cooking a simple porridge is difficult, so the 40-year-old teacher has been relying on takeaway meals for survival as she completes her mandatory isolation period.
But Xiao Ya considers herself lucky. Not only did she survive, so did her elderly parents, currently staying in isolation at a hotel after their own hospital treatment. She is looking forward to finally being reunited with them.
The family has been split throughout their weeks of illness, each being treated in a different facility. “I stayed in a Fangcang makeshift hospital, converted from an exhibition centre, and from time to time there came a sudden wailing. I found out later it was someone whose loved one had died,” she said.
“We patients talked to each other and I realised I am the lucky one. My parents and I all survived. That is the most important thing.” Staying positive through her ordeal took a lot of comforting and sharing for Xiao Ya with her fellow patients and the hospital’s medical staff.
Her 70-year-old father had been coughing for 10 days and her 68-year-old mother had barely eaten for a week by the end of January when Xiao Ya lost her appetite and developed a low fever. She checked her parents’ temperatures and they both had low fevers too.
CAT scans showed both parents had serious lung infections. Xiao Ya did not take the scan at the time. Her first thought was to get her parents admitted to hospital.
