‘It can target anyone’: Coronavirus patient in Italy issues plea in video for everyone to stay at home

‘It felt as if the cough was scratching my throat. I was struggling to breathe’

When coronavirus cases begun multiplying in Italy, making it the worst-hit country in the world in terms of deaths, fitness instructor Fausto Russo had been confident in his own immunity.

After all, he was a squarely built 38-year-old personal trainer and football coach who never smoked or had any underlying health issues. If it was true the deadly illness only hit the elderly and the sick, he felt certain he would be spared.

The first alarm bell went off on 5 March. “At first I thought I had the flu,” he tells The Independent from inside hospital.

When the headache turned out to be a 38C (100F) fever, the doctor recommended paracetamol and sleep. Within three days, the temperature had not gone down and what had seemed like a bad flu had turned into a debilitating illness that made walking almost impossible. His muscles, which had once been those of an athlete, had become a bundle of aching tissue.

“My legs hurt, every bit of my bones hurt. I was not hungry and had a dry cough… I could not smell or taste anything as much anymore.”

The cough quickly turned into a respiratory condition that left him increasingly gasping for air.

“It felt as if the cough was scratching my throat,” he says. “I was struggling to breathe, I often remained in apnoea.”

His two infant sons were playing in the living room when emergency medical personnel donning a face shield, mask and full body gown entered his home in Minturno, just under 100 miles south of Rome.

Five-year-old Daniel and three-year-old Thomas were shaken by the sight.

“Thomas was holding a toy of Mr Incredible, so my wife told them these men had come to turn me into their movie hero,” he says.

He was taken to Latina’s Santa Maria Goretti emergency room and later transferred to the hospital, a centre entirely dedicated to treating Covid-19. His pneumonia had worsened to the point of needing a CPAP hood – a transparent bubble-shaped ventilation system that covers the patient’s entire head. The buzzing sound of air being pumped in left him unable to hear much of what was being said or allow him much sleep.

“The scariest thing was not being able to breathe,” he says. The terrifying feeling of being pushed underwater was one he slowly learned to muster as he calmed himself down and aimed for smaller gulps for air.

Even as he set the fear aside, what he found “psychologically devastating” was the feeling of being blocked off from the rest of the world. “You are alone with yourself and you must summon all your strength and love for the people you care about to go through it.”

Patients whose health conditions deteriorate further are sent to intensive care units and subject to prolonged invasive ventilation while unconscious.

Russo was among the lucky ones. After spending six days and nights in the CPAP hood clinging on to life, his respiratory pressure stabilised enough to downgrade to an oxygen mask.

A doctor offered to administer Tocilizumab, an ingredient used in pharmaceuticals for arthritis that is yielding positive results on severe Covid-19 patients.

As researchers desperately attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and to find effective treatment, everything from drugs used to treat flu to failed Ebola drugs are being repurposed and tested on consenting patients.

Italy is suffering from an unprecedented healthcare crisis, with doctors overwhelmed by the sheer number of cases. As of Friday, 9,134 had died from the coronavirus, with a further 86,498 infections.

Italy issued a nationwide lockdown on 9 March, ordering its 60 million residents to self-isolate.

Russo’s message is clear: “The virus does not only target the people who are old or who have health issues – it can target anyone.

“The virus is walking on the legs of people with no symptoms. Therefore we’ll stop the virus if you stay at home.”

The region of Lazio, of which Rome is the capital, has more than 2,000 cases compared to more than 23,000 cases of the worst-hit Lombardy region. When Russo was hospitalised on 8 March, 81 patients tested positive to the virus.

He estimates Tocilizumab contributed to reducing around 60 per cent of his symptoms in the span of two days. On Wednesday, he spent the first night without the support of the oxygen mask. A mild cough and a slight shortness of breath are now the only visible signs of his ordeal.

If the result of a first swab is corroborated by a second swab, he can claim to be free of the virus and be allowed home to his family in the coming days.

“All I want is to see them again,” he says.

His children now expect their dad, the superhero who defeated the monster coronavirus, to look nothing short of Mr Incredible. “I might have to stuff my clothes with a bit of foam rubber,” he says jokingly.

Since the virus got hold of him, he has lost 15lbs (6.8kg), his lungs have undergone permanent damage and his mental health has taken a hard blow as the illusion of invincibility was shattered overnight.

But it has also given him a deep desire “never to take small things for granted again”.