A Margate couple who are self-isolating after showing covid-19 symptoms have released a video in the hope it will persuade people to take the virus seriously.
Zoë Escudier-Davies and husband Carl Davies are on day 20 of isolation. They phoned NHS 111 on March 14 after showing covid-19 symptoms and have been isolating since then.
Zoe has multiple underlying health issues and says if she didn’t already have a ventilator due to a rare condition which stops her breathing at night she would already be dead.
The 35-year-old, who is clinically vulnerable and needs to be shielded for 12 weeks, said: “This video shows Day 10 for me on 24/7 ventilation (VPap) and with symptoms of a headache, fatigue, pain in lungs, shortness of breath and loss of smell and taste.
“It’s not a nice video to watch but we hope it makes people self distance. Stay at home if you can, I don’t want any of you to go through this. Royal Brompton Hospital -which I am under- agreed if it wasn’t for the ventilator I would already be dead and there is still a high chance that I will get too tired and have to go to ICU and have invasive ventilation, meaning I’ll be all alone and could die that way.
“I don’t want or need sympathy and this certainly isn’t for that, it’s to show a real person who is generally very poorly struggle with suspected covid-19.”
Zoe says she has been poorly all her life but it wasn’t until 2015 that she was diagnosed with hyperadrenergic postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS), which is a condition that causes dysfunction to the autonomic nervous system. This means when she stands her heart rate increases and her blood pressure rockets.
The former Manston airport worker also has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) which affects her joints causing them to dislocate daily and creating problems with internal organs.
On top of coping with these conditions Zoe has a hole in the heart and a valve condition which results in un-oxygenated blood being released into body; suffers with heart arrhythmias -resulting in a pacemaker being fitted in 2017; asthma. Fibromyalgia, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and genetic related high cholesterol .
Lung and diaphragm weaknesses mean Zoe cannot lie down as this makes her oxygen levels drop dangerously low, she turns blue and goes into hypoxic seizures. She has also been diagnosed with rare Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS) which means every time she goes to sleep could be her last as her body effectively shuts down and her brain doesn’t tell her lungs to breath.
She said: “I have to sleep with a ventilator (life support unit) now otherwise I would die. I’m currently under seven consultants, all at different hospitals, and my health has got a lot worse over the past year, but you’ve just got to deal with it step by step.”
Zoe copes with numerous other health conditions and has been confined to a wheelchair for the past five years.
She said: “My home is finally adapted for the wheelchair and I have a wet-room built to the side of my home. This has made my life a lot easier and a little more independent. I am weaker now and I am poorly, all my organs are failing. My whole life has gone upside down. I and the consultants don’t know what lies ahead. All we know is there is no cure of anything I have and with time it will only get worse.
“Despite everything I am still the same Zoe: cheeky, stubborn and I like to take the mick out of myself in jest along with others. I’m still positive and every day is both a struggle and a blessing. I have to fight but we all have our fights. I make the most of what I have and try to do things on the days where I feel half human, even though every day I have severe pain which never goes away.”
Zoe says she is remaining at home because the property is already equipped with everything needed, including the ventilator, and former firefighter Carl, who now runs a health and safety company, is the person most able to take care of her.
She said: “I have stayed at home as we have all equipment needed and if it is covid-19 I don’t want to die alone. My conditions are so rare that the best doctor is my husband.
“I’m in the extremely vulnerable category and my husband is self-employed. We have now run out of money and don’t know how we will or can pay our bills next month.
“It’s my birthday in a few weeks but these are really awful times and I hope I can survive this.”
Unfortunately too many people seem to have given up on the stay at home policy. Thanet’s roads are seeing a big hike in traffic over the previous couple if days and it’s getting worse.
A lot of non essential companies on Thanet’s Industrial estates that originally closed have now reopened. It’s disgusting that these non essential companies are flouting government policy, they are putting their workers and workers families at risk. Its about time the local police start visiting these non essential companies and start issuing fines.
George Orwell’s 1984 springs to mind!
Concerned. It’s all very well thinking everyone should stay at home and all firms should close down. However people have got to eat and many will have no money to pay bills none of us know how long this this virus is going on for.
Many millions do not have any savings to fall back on. So when it’s all over they will have big debts homes reprocessed no jobs. The government should supply everyone with face mask and make it a criminal offence not to wear one n public.
Just been out to get some shopping at our local shop and it’s clear that it’s mainly the young, usually male have got the brains of a rocking horse.
We were walking keeping a safe distance when a youth ran straight at us and had no intention of trying to avoid us. In fact he would have forced us to step aside while he ran listening to music on his headphones. When challenged it was clear he is one our millenien snowflakes who think the world is here just for them. I’ll be going out in my car in future, I’m living in a country that I don’t recognise. Very sad!
Ann, it’s people with attitudes like yours that will make this bad situation even worse. Just like what happened recently in Italy and Spain, people like you continue to defy the governments advice. Only a fool fails to learn from recent events in the countries most affected by this virus.
Not only are people with your mentality going to prolong this pandemic but people just like yourselves will also be responsible for the deaths of others.
Concerned. The fact you are rude and think you are the only one to know it al.
1. How do you get your food?
2. Are you retired?
3.Are you well off.
4. Don’t you think that if everyone had to wear a mask in public it would make sense?
5. We have not defied any of the government rules whatsoever. Don’t assume things you don’t know.
6. We are far from poor I am talking for those who have to work.
7. How do you know those in Italy and Spain defied the close down rules, is that another of you oh-so-perfect assuming skills?
Concerned. How do you know that firms are doing what you say they are doing and how do you know the traffic is building up each day? Where are you to know these things, ?
The one thing I would suggest is non-essential is your paranoid assumptions.
Ann, I work in a business classed as essential and my partner works for the NHS. I am seeing so many selfish people carrying on as though everything is normal. The roads I am travelling on are getting busier each day with people only thinking of themselves.
Trying to justify People flouting the stay at home advice for non essential work is just lunacy. If you are too ignorant to know what happened in Italy and Spain at the beginning of their stay at home advice then I suggest you read up on it. Perhaps when you have educated yourself on what happened in Spain and Italy then come back and have a sensible discussion .
No, I am far from wealthy and this whole unfortunate situation is going to cost me and set me, like most people back months but I am sensible, caring, and savvy enough to know that wearing a face mask while flouting sensible government advice is not an excuse to carry on as normal.
The government is spending hundreds of billions supporting companies and businesses through these hard times but still People are complaining.
Wake up, financially we are all going to be a lot worse off but People are dying and hospitals are filled to the brim with individuals suffering from this highly contagious virus. You need to get your priorities straight.
Many are out clogging the roads up all over Thanet, Many people out defying the stay at home rules too. Just because the weather is warming up this weekend doesn’t mean all is over and back to normal. The police are supposed to be following the strict regulations but are ignoring them too as not even one fine has been issued. What is the point in trying to save people catching the coronavirus when other selfish fools are going out contracting it from what they touch then take it home and pass it on to others who also pass it on before it shows they have it? This is going to be prolonged because it is not being taken seriously even so all around us people are dying. Wake up those people taking unnecessary chances and be responsible.
Also, why are non-essential workers out putting up 5G pylons in Thanet and other towns across Britain whilst this crisis is happening? Birchington and Westgate are getting them at this moment. The microwave electromagnetic radiation being pumped out for quicker connection on the internet is killing wildlife and is making humans ill also. Microwaves are supposed to be safely kept in an oven not out in the environment. It is slowly being banned across many countries now as is dangerous and not worth the risks, being well above safe levels (UK levels have been made far too high), but here in the UK it is being put up behind our backs whilst people are supposed to be shut up at home not noticing what’s going on. Kill us all off Bo Jo why don’t you, just so you can put a bit extra away in your bank!
Can you let me know where they are being put up please?