‘She was in school, the next week she was in a coma’: Victorian teen’s COVID ordeal - The Age

One week Saela was in school, the next she was in a nine-day coma.

The 17-year-old Victorian girl has described her ordeal after being struck down with COVID-19 and placed on a ventilator.

Addressing media during the Victorian government’s coronavirus update on Wednesday, Saela recounted how she became infected with COVID-19 from her baby sister’s daycare centre and, later in hospital, nearly died.

Her mother Michelle said: “Last week she was in school and next week she was in a coma.”

Saela described what her household was like as one after another they became ill.

“My whole family was sick, everyone was coughing and suffering from aches and pains and sore throat. They couldn’t taste or smell,” she said.

She recounted coughing fits that left her breathless, but said “as a family we were worried about my grandma, as she was older.”

She said it was in the second week of her illness that she deteriorated badly.

“My whole family was getting worried. And I would just brush it off, and say I was OK, but, really, I was scared and I was hoping I would get better.”

Eventually, she was taken away alone in an ambulance and admitted to Box Hill Hospital. Things went downhill from there.

Saela’s mother Michelle visits her in intensive care.

She was told she had pneumonia but did not know what that meant.

The next night she couldn’t stop coughing and struggled to breathe.

“I felt so many needles. I couldn’t catch my next breath. There was so much commotion around me, and I didn’t know what was going on, I was so scared, I was screaming and I thought I was going to die,” she said.

Saela said when she woke up in hospital nine days later, she was hallucinating and realised she had a tube coming out of her neck.

Saela in hospital with her mother, Michelle, as she recovers from COVID-19.

“I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk. I was scared to sleep again. I just stared at the ceiling and I was alone,” she said.

She spent nearly a month at the hospital and ultimately recovered, but she will bear the scar of her tracheostomy for the rest of her life.

“I had to learn to walk again. I cried every day, I worked very hard and I recovered, so that I could be home for the AFL grand final,” she said.

She was not eligible to get vaccinated when she caught COVID-19 and urged others to protect themselves.

“There are a lot of people my age who think they’re invincible and don’t need the vaccine.”

“They think ... they won’t be affected, but COVID almost killed me. If you can get the vaccine, please consider it.

“I don’t want anyone my age to have to lie in the hospital and tell their family: ‘I’m sorry I didn’t get vaccinated’.”

Saela is the latest in a line of people sharing pro-vaccination experiences at government press conferences. Her mother said it was Saela’s decision to talk about her experience so publicly.

“[Saela] wasn’t forced and I admire her bravery,” Michelle said. “Maybe there will be anonymous people online who will try and make her feel bad for speaking out. But they should know that nothing will ever make her feel worse than what COVID did.”

Saela’s family became infected, too, with her father at one point coughing up blood. Michelle recalled seeing her family members, who later recovered, getting taken away by ambulances one after the other.

Michelle’s parents were the only people in her family who were fully vaccinated. They went on to avoid serious illness.

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2021-10-13 04:03:05Z
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