Victor GodinezCubillo, 60, Daly City

“I’m not a person who gets sick,” Victor GodinezCubillo says.

An engineer with a background in geology, he once worked in the jungles of Mexico at risk of malaria and other diseases, with little fear of illness. After two decades working in his home country, GodinezCubillo moved to the Bay Area in 2001, settling in Daly City. The former marathon runner and swimmer, now 60, says that before COVID19, he hadn’t been ill in four years.

But on April 20, what he calls “the nightmare of my life” began.

It started with a light discomfort then slowly built to something serious. He tested positive for the coronavirus on April 23 and, with fever spiking, was told by his Kaiser doctor to head to the South San Francisco hospital’s emergency room on April 25.

The married father of three talks about the physical fight — involving doctors and treatment — but also the spiritual fight going on in his feverscattered brain. When the virus was at its worst, and he was hooked up to oxygen, GodinezCubillo says he viewed his survival as a battle between dark and light.

“The dark side is dark because I feel very bad, and it doesn’t allow me to think well,” GodinezCubillo said. “Sometimes the dark covered the light, and sometimes I thought I needed to give up. But always there is something saying, ‘Keep on, keep on. The light is going to be there.’

“Once I cried and asked God, ‘Send me your light, and give me your mercy and help me.’ ”

While GodinezCubillo handled the spiritual side of the fight, his Kaiser doctors had success with medical treatments, eventually giving the patient Remdesivir, an IVadministered drug being tested to treat the worst symptoms of coronavirus.

After the second night on Remdesivir, GodinezCubillo improved quickly. He spent a total of five days in the hospital.

GodinezCubillo says he got better quickly, going back to work in midMay. Two weeks ago, he went on an 18mile bike ride with his grown son.

“I felt tired, but I felt recovered in less than an hour,” GodinezCubillo said.

His message is one of hope, not alarm or dread. “Follow the protocols,” he says, listen to doctors, maintain your faith and be safe. Above all, even if you get the coronavirus, don’t let your life be consumed by fear.