Shiawassee Times

WJR’s "The Paul W. Smith Show" recently hosted Eric Flora, a Consumers Energy Gas Distribution Employee, to discuss Flora’s personal experience as someone who has battled COVID-19.

Flora told Smith that he began to experience symptoms on April 9, the day before Good Friday. At first, he treated it like a simple cold or flu, and tried to stay home and rest.

Finally, after a week without improvement, Flora’s wife convinced him to go to the hospital, he told Smith. But things didn’t improve after he was admitted.

"I woke up and tried to get up, and I don’t remember much after that, other than waking up in the ICU,” Flora told Smith.

Flora had to be put on a respirator at high oxygen flow due to low oxygen levels in his bloodstream, though he never had to have a ventilator, he told Smith.

But the recovery was far from quick.

"Everything started April 9, and I finally made it home May 30, but still COVID-positive,” he told Smith. The first negative COVID-19 test that Flora had didn’t come until June.

At one point, Flora’s family was told he was near death, and he lost 40 pounds during the course of his illness.

"And it wasn’t much fat that was lost -- it was muscle, so I couldn’t walk,” Flora told Smith. “It was a journey just getting out of my vehicle and into my home.”

Flora had to go through physical therapy and wasn’t ready to go back to work until the beginning of August, he told Smith, after finally receiving three negative tests in a row for COVID-19.

He still carries scars from the illness, such as lung damage, though Flora told Smith that doctors do not yet know whether that damage is permanent. He also feels some guilt about being a survivor when so many other people have lost their lives to this virus.

He mentioned how strongly he believes in mask-wearing to protect his coworkers and neighbors. "I definitely want to pass that message along: Just mask up. It's something simple to do... It's not really that hard."