Melbourne construction worker Nathan Chellia was on the phone to contact tracers when he collapsed at home, just one day after being diagnosed with COVID-19.
“I was pretty much unconscious,” Mr Chellia said.
“The Department of Health had to call an ambulance and take me to hospital.”
The father of two would go on to spend the next 14 days in intensive care in Melbourne’s Northern Hospital, where he could barely eat or drink.
His throat was so closed, even simply sipping water would cause him to choke.
At one point, Mr Chellia was asked by his doctors to contact his loved ones and make final arrangements in case “something happens”.
He told them that if he needed to be placed on a ventilator for more than 24 hours, they should let him die.
“I had headaches, vomiting, bleeding from my mouth. I was pretty much half-dead,” he said.
“And I realised then that I had made a silly mistake because I hadn’t had a vaccine.”
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