For more than 20 years Mark Kinghorn has been battling wrestlers of all sizes in the ring, but a recent fight against COVID-19 is one fight he wishes he never had to face.
“I got my first symptom on a Saturday night, I think it was the eighth of May,” Kinghorn, who is a professional wrestler in Edmonton, said.
He said it started with chills, then got worse.
“All the symptoms came: I lost my sense of taste and I had a sore throat, a cough, headache, everything. It was the worst,” Kinghorn said.
He was scheduled for a vaccine but instead opted for a test; it turned out he was COVID-19 positive.
“Normally I’m the healthiest of guys — I’m healthier than 99 per cent of the people out there, I’m very rarely sick,” Kinghorn said.
Struggling to breath he called 911 and was rushed to hospital.
“One of the top lung guys or doctors there was like, ‘Mark can you breath like this for 12 hours?’ I’m like ‘If I have to but I’m not feeling good,'” he said.
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That’s when the doctor told him he would be put on a ventilator and a medically induced coma.
He was in a coma for one day, after waking up he was fortunate to have a visit from his sister who he never thought he’d see again.
“I see her but I had the ventilator in and the tubes down my throat and I couldn’t talk at all, so the only way I could communicate with her was writing it down,” Mark Kinghorn said.
Barely able move he wrote the words I’m scared, so scared, how long can you stay… don’t leave.
“Having my older brother who I adore, he’s telling me that he’s scared that’s completely out of character for him and all I was thinking in that moment was I need to be strong and I can’t cry,” Laura Kinghorn said.
On the eighth day — he was still afraid of what could happen — he heard some good news: his doctor told him he could go home.
“I just threw my hands in the air and I’m like ‘Yes!’ He just started laughing and was like that is a good reaction,” Kinghorn said.
He is now at home on his road to recovery. After his brush with death he urges everyone to follow the rules and get vaccinated.
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