Photographer tells of grim fight with ‘hidden assassin’

A MAN at the peak of fitness has issued a warning about “hidden assassin” coronavirus after he ended up in hospital.

Photographers Louie Mcmaster and his wife Louise picked up Covid-19 while on a photo shoot together.

The 36-year-old thought he would be “relatively unscathed” by it as he is the “fittest, strongest and fastest I’ve ever been”.

But despite being in the best shape of his life, the Co Fermanagh man’s oxygen levels dropped and an X-ray at South West Acute Hospital showed he had also contracted bilateral pneumonia.

In a heartfelt Facebook post, he is now warning others to be vigilant.

Louie said: “I have always been someone that has paid attention to the Covid-19 pandemic over the months that has enveloped the world but I will confess, like many, I thought I was one of those people that would remain relatively unscathed if I did contract the virus. I‘m not high risk – I’m young, 36, have been pushing the levels of my fitness in the sport of Crossfit with over five years of hard training, competing in national level competitions.

“This is without doubt the fittest, strongest, fastest I’ve ever been – what harm would one virus cause?

“Sure it’s only the people that are 60-plus or have underlying health conditions that really need to worry, right? How wrong I was.

PAIN

“This all came crashing down when my wife and I contracted the virus while shooting.

“We were out trying to earn a living, trying to survive this shambles of a year that has gone before us.

“Every [shoot] is like gold dust and yet it was here we came into contact with the hidden assassin.”

Louie said he had “severe joint pain to the extent it felt like there were razor blades in my kneecaps and shoulders – everything ached”. He added: “Then came the fevers, chills, waking up in the middle of the night drenched as if I walked out of the shower.

“Needing to go to the toilet but knowing if I did the chill outside the bed would cause me to shiver so violently I would nearly vomit.

“Then came the thumping headaches, stabbing pains in my chest and above my left eye and my lower back. The burning cramps in my stomach and then the tightness started in my lungs.”

With his “body crying for oxygen” he called for an ambulance and ended up in hospital where it was discovered the virus had moved to his lungs and caused bilateral pneumonia.

Louie said: “It’s one thing fighting a hidden illness but see when you are locked in a room, alone, no one there, longing for some sort of human contact but no loved one in sight... it’s hard.

“I spent two nights alone in ward eight trying to stabilise, trying to learn the limits of what life would be like now over the next weeks and possibly months.

“Not weeks or months of getting on with my normal life, back into training, back into coaching Crossfit and PTS, no.

“Life will be survival, slowly moving, slowly sitting, slowly eating. Breathing is a luxury, a privilege, never forget it, I pray I don’t when I come through

this.”

Breathing is a luxury, a privilege, never forget it LOUIE MCMASTER ON FIGHTING CORONAVIRUS

BRAVE BATTLE Louie Mcmaster was hospitalised after getting bug SICK Louie in hospital

STRONG Louie was at peak fitness