Wandsworth man forced to lie to get Covid test

By Sian Bayley, Local Democracy Reporter

A man who contracted coronavirus in December has spoken out about his unusual symptoms and the fact he had to lie in order to get a test.

Stephen Spark, 62, from Wandsworth, said his wife likely caught the virus in her job in retail and they both became ill around December 14 and 15.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “At first because we didn’t have any of the three symptoms that the NHS has on its website, which has a new continuous dry cough, the high temperature and the loss of taste and smell, we didn’t have any of those issues.

“So I assumed it was like ordinary flu, just like a really bad flu, because the symptoms were much the same, you know, dreadful aches and pains and feeling incredibly tired and all that sort of thing.

“But then we got a test. The only way you can get a test if you don’t have the symptoms that the NHS recognises is to lie.”

He said they were only prompted to get a test by his wife’s employer who would not let her back to work until she had had one.

His wife was concerned about what to say, again, because she didn’t have any of the three symptoms, and was told she would have to lie and say she did have those symptoms.

When Stephen asked his GP, he was told the same.

“This is insane,” he said.

“I now know six people who have had Covid and four haven’t had any of the symptoms that the NHS recognises. Those symptoms aren’t listed on its website. And I think it’s awful. My GP, who I’ve just spoken to, she said ‘I totally agree with you, it needs to change’.”

He says his main symptom was “incredible fatigue.”

“I mean, like you’ve been given knockout pills,” he said.

“My wife slept for almost 30 hours. I mean I literally had to wake her up to force her to eat something. I was so worried because she hadn’t eaten for 24 hours. She was just so knocked out by it.”

He said he also had a “stinking headache” and aches and joint pain like he had been “run over by a steamroller.”

Although he and his wife could still smell and taste things, they soon lost their appetites.

“The thought of food was just awful. I just couldn’t eat anything,” he said.

In the end he found placing little bits of apple and satsuma segments by his bedside the best way to eat.

He also experienced “an irritating little productive cough” and a “sudden sneezing fit”, as well as diarrhoea and breathing problems.

“This thing just changes every minute. It’s bizarre. It moves so fast,” he said.

When phoning 111 after concerns about his wife’s chest congestion, which “sounded like she was drowning” he was simply advised to take home remedies.

Fortunately he had a GP friend who advised calling 999.

“She might have saved my wife’s life because when the ambulance came, they tested her oxygen, and it was way too low. They had to give her emergency oxygen and take her to St. George’s. She spent a night in there but luckily only one night.”

Five days later, after starting to feel a bit better, Stephen then took a turn for the worst.

“I couldn’t speak in a full sentence. I was gasping for breath. And again, my same friend told me to phone my GP now, and I did, and she said I’m calling an ambulance for you.”

Fortunately his oxygen levels had improved by the time the ambulance arrived two hours later.

In total Stephen was ill for three weeks.

“I would say the last week was certainly easier than the first two weeks which were bad. But they weren’t universally bad. I mean, on December 24, I was writing an order to a printer to print some books and sending emails. And then I felt very tired and went back to bed.

“I felt well enough on the 27th to get up and actually go out to the shops. I walked very slowly, I can tell you, and I was really tired and had to go to bed when I got back. But I thought I must be getting better. But then the next day and the day after that I was in a very bad way.”

He said this happened to him several times.

“It moves so fast. It’s so unpredictable. And I think this is the scary thing because you don’t know how to deal with it. I mean, I’m 62, I’ve had chicken pox, mumps, measles, flu endless times, you know, and countless colds and various other things, but never had anything like this.

“It’s just outside my experience of a disease. It’s like it’s got a mind of its own.”

He said this was made all the worse by the lack of guidance on how to look after yourself at home.

“That was what became more frightening as time went on. You felt very alone because you didn’t have a knowledge of what was OK, what was just a question of just toughing it, out and what was something to be worried about.”

He says this was definitely the case with low blood oxygen levels, where people can be chatting away quite happily, despite being at dangerously low levels.

“I expected to find on the NHS coronavirus website page, a list of how to look after yourself at home, how to look after a partner, but there was nothing like that.

“They do tell you a couple of things, such as if you’re having breathing problems, you probably ought to call somebody.”

However he thinks if it wasn’t for medical and GP friends he would have been a lot worse.

Stephen advises taking multivitamins, particularly Vitamin D, as well as purchasing an oximeter.

“This pulse oximeter, you can buy them for 15 quid. I got one off Amazon, you can get them from Boots. I mean, everybody should have one like a thermometer with Covid around because that’s the thing, if you start struggling for breath, that’s what you need to slip on your finger. If it’s 85 as mine was, you need to phone 999, I mean, it’s crucial.”

He found “lots of sleep” helped him, but advised setting alarms to make sure you get up every so often for a short walk and to eat, especially if you are living alone.

He also said breathing exercises and an “old fashioned vapour bath” helped as well as keeping in contact with people on the telephone or online to keep up morale.

He added: “I absolutely take my hat off to the medical people we had contact with. I think we were really lucky. My GP surgery were fantastic, sending an oximeter around by taxi. It was jaw dropping service.

“The ambulance people, they were so positive, and so cheery. So exactly what you want at a time when you’re really worried.”