Listening to First-hand Account of a COVID-19 Survivor is Surreal

Benjamin Rich a.k.a. Bald & Bankrupt is one of my favourite travel YouTubers. He became famous in the video sharing platform by uploading his travel videos in India, Russia and post-Soviet states, to name a few countries. Among the appeal of his videos is that he provides straight, unedited live commentary without fancy editing. In my opinion, his videos are what YouTube is made for.

He regularly posts videos every week, but he suddenly stopped uploading sometime in May. Turned out he caught the virus when he was travelling in Serbia and could not travel as usual. Fortunately at the time of writing, he has already recovered and is now discharged from the hospital.

Now, I think most of his subscribers weren’t surprised that he was infected with COVID-19. At a time when everyone in the world was asked to stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus since February/March, this dude continued to travel as if nothing was happening (you can scroll through his YouTube channel to see his travels during COVID-19 times). He was basically asking to be infected.

In his latest video where he talked about his experience of being infected with COVID-19, he acknowledged that it was his fault, he could’ve stayed home like everyone else and be safe. At the hospital, he was placed under Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for a few days due to his critical condition and fortunately survived the whole ordeal.

(For an unknown reason, this particular video was removed from his channel. Somebody reposted it but I’m not sure how long this video will be there.)

I think by now everyone knows about the respiratory complications that are caused by COVID-19. What’s interesting about Rich’s video is that he didn’t just tell us about his breathing difficulties but also about his harrowing experience being in the ICU. How he watched other COVID-19 patients near him suffered and died.

This is not something that I have read anywhere else. I can’t imagine being bedridden in a room with other critically-ill patients that share the same survival chance as me. Maybe today the person next to you dies, maybe tomorrow it’s your turn. At one time, Rich saw the electronic vital sign monitors (the thing that goes beep beep) for the patient in front of him, basically flatlined.

Rich said his experience in the ICU was so terrifying that he might have PTSD from it. In the comments, some people say PTSD among former ICU patients is a very real thing. This is because ICU patients are sedated (not sure if this is the correct word) with some drugs and are left in a half-conscious state where they can experience surreal hallucinations.

This is one thing that is not widely-reported about among COVID-19 survivors and I think this traumatic experience is just as severe as the respiratory complications. The Atlantic made a well-produced short documentary about this issue (dubbed “ICU delirium”) and it is harrowing.

I learned that anyone that recovers from anything in the ICU unit has so much more to recover from, especially their mental health.

Anyway, Rich gave high praises to his doctors and nurses and now he said he will adhere to the government's advice on preventing COVID-19. It will probably take a few more months before we can watch the Bald & Bankrupt travel adventures again.