Two women credit COVID vaccine, doctors for saving their lives

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Two women are crediting doctors and the COVID-19 vaccine for saving their lives and escaping the Intensive Care Unit.

Myra Jogie, 38, tested positive for COVID-19 on October 26 at the San Fernando General Hospital.

She went to the hospital after her doctor recommended she go immediately when she presented with flu-like symptoms and low blood oxygen saturation level.

She spent the night there before being transferred to the Augustus Long Hospital the next day.

She said she was sedated and placed into the Intensive Care Unit shortly after arrival. She said she spent almost three weeks in the ward.

Having gone through the experience, she said it’s something she hopes no one has to endure.

“I would not wish this upon my worst enemy- if I have an enemy- or the dog on the street that walks on the road. I would not wish what I went through for even them,” she said.

When she awoke from sedation almost three weeks later, she said the medical team she was one of the lucky ones.

“I make friends with the nurse and them after I wake (up) and what I was told (was that I was) very lucky…I was like why?” she said.

“They said (because) you were the only person here vaccinated.”

She said the patients around her were both young and elderly but were unvaccinated and all were sedated. From what she was told, most were in a worse condition than her.

She said she was given the nickname “miracle child” in the ICU.

“Because only I took the vaccine to walk out of there,” she said.

She received her second dose of Sinopharm in the second week of August.

“I could have actually been dead if I wasn’t vaccinated,” she said.

While she does not have any of the stereotypical comorbidities linked with a severe infection such as hypertension or diabetes, she said doctors told her that her weight was her high-risk factor.

Jogie thanked the medical team at the Augustus Long Hospital for saving her life and the “excellent” treatment of her case.

It’s a similar situation for Denielle Sookoo who tested positive on August 6 along with both her parents and grandmother. She too was warded at the Augustus Long Hospital.

“Within 24 hours of being at Augustus Long I was sent to ICU,” she said.

“At that point, it was very very difficult for me to breathe, I was very tired…I remembered telling the doctor, doctor you do whatever it is you need to do to help me and fix me at that point.”

She said she was told by her parents that her blood pressure was fluctuating and she even had a lung embolism while receiving treatment. Just as doctors were preparing to step her down, Sookoo had a panic attack which meant she spent another two weeks in ICU.

But while she was only partially vaccinated, she said it was enough to help her survive.

“The two major factors were my age, I am 26 years old so they said I’m very young as well as even though I am not fully vaccinated being partially vaccinated—it helped because…my body already started building immunity that it helped a whole lot as opposed to being unvaccinated,” she said.

The most recent statistics from the Ministry of Health show that between July 22 and November 17, 89.9 per cent of patients hospitalised for COVID-19, 89.9 per cent (6,408 of 7,134) were not fully vaccinated.

Up until November 15, 96.2 per cent (1,355 of 1,411) of fatalities have been among those not fully vaccinated. Ministry of Health officials have previously stated the majority of those who died despite being fully vaccinated had other severe illnesses.