COVID NEARLY KILLED MY SUPER-FIT HUSBAND
Wife’s warning after Sergeant Major Sammy faced death three times
A Rutherglen woman, whose supremely fit husband stared death in the face three times while in a month- long Covid coma, is pleading with communities to adhere to restrictions as the country enters another near-lockdown.
Sergeant Major Sammy McFarlane spent more than 11 weeks in hospital – including 26 days in a medically-induced coma – after contracting Covid- 19, pneumonia and sepsis.
His relieved wife, Janice, says 57-year-old Sammy, who led a very healthy lifestyle, fought the battle of his life when he was struck down with the deadly virus and has had to learn to walk and talk again.
As the country wakes up today to further restrictions in a bid to contain the spread of the disease that came so close to claiming her husband’s life, Janice pleaded: “Be alert and play by the rules.
“It’s not just people who have underlying health conditions that get it.
“Sammy was strong, muscular, fit and didn’t smoke.
“It makes me angry when people go about their everyday lives thinking it won’t affect them.
“Sammy’s ordeal is proof that it so easily can.”
After a career in the Army spanning nearly 40 years, Sergeant Major Sammy McFarlane was as strong as an ox.
But when he returned to his home in Rutherglen’s Main Street after more than 11 weeks in hospital fighting Covid-19, his weight had plummeted from 13st 7lbs to just 9st 2lbs and his former muscular physique resembled that of a much older, frail man who’d lost his ability to walk or even talk.
The virus that ravaged his body, coupled with pneumonia and sepsis, took a drastic toll, and doctors told his frantic family on three occasions that he came close to death.
Since he was discharged from hospital at the end of June, 57-year-old Sammy’s recovery has been remarkable, and he even went back to work last month.
His family attributes his speedy return to fitness to his healthy lifestyle, and the physio he’s receiving from the Army to help him get back on his feet.
But it’s been a long, hard battle for the grandfather of two, and one to which many lesser mortals would have had no option but to surrender.
Coronavirus hadn’t crossed the minds of Sammy and wife Janice when, one weekend in mid-April, he began complaining of a severe headache.
“It wasn’t like him. He moans about nothing,” said Janice, 55.
“He’s been in the Army for nearly 39 years and he’s a big, strapping guy, all muscle. The headache was really the only symptom. He didn’t have a temperature or anything.”
When Sammy, who serves with the regiment formerly known as the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, noticed changes in his sense of taste and smell, NHS 24 advised him to attend Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where he tested positive for the virus.
“My husband phoned me on the Monday and said they’d need to keep him in for 24 hours, just to make sure everything was alright,” continued Janice.
“He said he’d be back on Tuesday, but that never happened. He was never to be seen again for 11- and- a- half weeks.
“On the Wednesday, doctors phoned to tell me he was pretty bad with his breathing and they were taking him into intensive care. He was put in an induced coma for 26 days. I couldn’t see him, of course. The only thing I got was by phoning the hospital.
“Three times, it was touch-andgo and he nearly died. As well as Covid, he picked up pneumonia and sepsis. He had to fight all that as well.
“They suggested to me that if he didn’t start fighting, he would just deteriorate. I did have doubts, because there is only so much your body can take. I thought, ‘how bad is this going to get for him’?
“He’d been hit badly by three major things, and Covid we don’t