Now recovering from COVID-19, 72-year-old Rodger Gollogly says the credit goes to Kingston General Hospital staff.
“The staff, they come, work their 12-hour shifts, they go home,” he said. “They look after their family, they come back again and do it all over again.”
The retired hotel owner was in Arizona with his wife Susan when the Canadian government called back residents because of the spread of COVID-19.
The couple left Tucson on March 21 and arrived in Gananoque three days later.
Despite engaging in social isolation and maintaining physical distancing, Gollogly says a few days after getting home, his wife started showing symptoms of COVID-19.
“She started feeling sick and nausea, and sore throat, coughing, low grade fever,” he said.
Susan tested positive for COVID-19 and three days after getting those results, Rodger was in an ambulance on his way to Kingston General Hospital with the same symptoms.
His cough was worse and his blood oxygen levels were low
“They wheeled me in, took x-rays of my chest, did blood work, they moved me up into a private room,” he said.
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While his wife was self-isolating at their home, Gollogly was being fed oxygen at the hospital. He’s been in hospital for five days now, slowly recuperating.
“Every day they would do blood work, probably two or three times a day and monitor the oxygen level,” he said.
Gollogly says he also owes a big thank you to his friends and family who helped his wife, stuck at home in her own fight against the novel coronavirus.
“They helped her with groceries and anything she needed,” he said. “We had a lot of support there as well.”
Once he’s released from hospital, Gollogly says both he and his wife will have to self-isolate for another week or two.
He says they will be tested to make sure they are free of the virus before they are able to leave their house again.
Gollogly says he wouldn’t wish his experience on anyone and hopes people act responsibly to reduce the spread of this disease.
“It was really scary; you never realize how bad it is,” he said.
“You think, ‘oh, I’m not going to get this — it’s just a little flu bug, I’ll get over it,’ but it’s a lot more serious than we really think.”
Gollogly expects to be out of hospital by Saturday morning at the latest.
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