Critical care ordeal was my darkest moment

I was told I was the first patient from Bradford with coronavirus to be put into intensive care and, to be honest, it was my darkest moment. It was a really terrifying experience.

For me, it started one Sunday evening in mid-march when I came home with a really high temperature.

I told my family, and we decided to self-isolate; me, my mum and dad and my sister. A few days later, my mum and my sister had recovered, but me and my dad, who’s 53, still weren’t feeling well, so my mum called for an ambulance. Dad came back three days later. By the next Sunday, my mum could see I still wasn’t doing well at all. An ambulance took me into the A&E department at Bradford Royal Infirmary. From there, I was moved on to the coronavirus positive ward, where they tried to insert lots of wires into me. They were really struggling because my arteries had collapsed.

That’s when they said they had to move me into the intensive care unit. At the same time, my temperature was sky-rocketing. The nurses kept putting cold wet towels on me and giving me paracetamol. But the worst moment came when they put me on a breathing machine. It was really exhausting, because every time I tried to breathe out naturally it was pushing oxygen back down into my lungs.

Not having any family around me because of the restrictions on visitors, I felt really alone. If it hadn’t been for the nurses, I don’t know how I would have got through it. They were the only comfort I had during those days.

When they finally took me out of ICU after five days and put me back on to the ward, I was so happy. It was a real milestone for me, and then to see my family again was just brilliant.

After three days, I went home again and I’ve been doing well since then. Faiz Ilyas, 24, is a second-year structural engineering student at University of Bradford and part-time taxi driver.