She’s a fit, 46-year-old who runs marathons, but South Aussie Anna Liptak is still working through recovering from a serious bout of coronavirus.
Liptak was one of the 20 per cent of people who will suffer severe symptoms from COVID-19. And although she is over the virus itself, she is still fighting pneumonia, a side-effect of the disease.
Despite being back on her feet, Liptak is worried about what happens next.
“I’ve got family, friends, I’ve got my parents to worry about, who are in their 70s. My dad, he’s got health conditions, so I’m actually scared for what’s around the corner,” Anna told Erin and Soda this morning.
“The world changed the day that I entered the hospital to the day that I came out of quarantine at home. It’s a very different world, possibly, I’m feeling more scared as each day passes.”
Listen to the full chat with Anna Liptak here:
“I woke up on the Friday morning and I actually fell on the laundry floor. I had a fever and I just wanted to stay on that laundry floor. And I thought: ‘What do I do here? Do I call out? Am I conscious?’ And I checked, ‘yep I’m conscious, I’m fine.'”
Anna had not been overseas, but had recently attended an international conference alongside attendees from both Italy and Spain.
“I was sicker than I’ve ever been, I couldn’t get out of bed, I thought I must have had depression or something. I was very lethargic, I had a thumping headache, a sore throat and I had a fever.”
When it comes to advice for the rest of us, Liptak urges us to listen to the experts in preventing the virus’s spread.
“It’s time that we need to really respect and protect our elders. And we need to protect the more vulnerable people. We need to wash our hands…like our life depends on it. We need to listen and trust the experts so that the medical systems can cope.”
Like many of us, she’s looking forward to some light at the end of the tunnel, for Anna, it’s the finishing line at the next New York Marathon.
“I can’t wait to give everybody a big, sweaty hug across that finishing line.”
