First German patient about virus: "I've never felt bad, I'm in top shape"

He does not want to reveal his name. But he wants to talk. About the corona virus. About his course of the disease, the treatment in the isolation ward and his recovery. Bavaria's first corona patient spoke about "Bayern 1" over the past few weeks.

When asked what is probably the most important question of how he is doing, he explains that his health is great. "I'm really in top shape. I never felt bad."

"Didn't see her sniffing and coughing"

The patient had contracted the virus from a colleague in China in January. This was for a training course in Germany at the Webasto company. At that time the lady did not seem sick to him. "I didn't see her sniffing or coughing in any way. For me, she was completely healthy." There was a short handshake.

After he noticed the first symptoms of the illness a few days later, sore throat and fever, he took paracetamol. Already on Sunday he was fine, on Monday he felt fit enough to go back to work, he told Bayern 1.

The thought that it could be the virus from China came to him when he was back at work. "In the early morning I learned that the colleague I had contact with had actually been diagnosed with the coronavirus." He went straight to his family doctor, who had forwarded him to the Tropical Institute.

After the diagnosis: "I just reacted"

The test results and the diagnosis were initially a shock. "At the time, I just reacted," the patient recalls in the radio interview. He then drove to the clinic, was admitted, taken to a room and examined. He had no fever. "I felt healthy. I never felt in mortal danger."

The situation seemed surreal to him. Thoughts went through his head, such as "Why do I have to be the only person in Germany who has this virus? Why do I have to be the first now?" He tells the radio station.

In the hospital: "We felt in good hands"

He was not afraid that the symptoms would worsen, he says. "But there were very competent doctors." Initially the patient was alone, little by little more colleagues came to the quarantine ward, all of them were accommodated in single rooms.

"It was a very, very boring everyday life," the patient recalls. There was no change. He started measuring the fever he "never had". Nose and throat swabs followed. After that, as he describes "Bayern 1", it was a normal day with – working on the laptop and sometimes with a series.

The doctors and nurses had worn protective suits. "But what was then shown on television, that means these full-body suits with extra oxygen refueling, did not exist," emphasizes the patient. The doctors had worn breathing masks, a kind of painter's suit and gloves.

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Dismissal dragged on: "We were trapped in this institution"

After 18 days the redeeming message. The patient was allowed to go home. Even though he and other colleagues had felt healthy for a long time and had had no symptoms for a long time, no discharge criteria were initially defined. "We just waited a long time for it," he reports. The perspective was missing, which was very stressful for the patients.

"We were more or less trapped in this institution and we had to wait for the ministry to decide to write criteria that could release us," says the patient at "Bayern 1". He cannot understand why it took so long, he reports in a radio interview.

"Would advise everyone to stay calm"

After the discharge, the patient first ordered a pizza. His family greeted and hugged, washed clothes. So far, he has not yet fulfilled all the requirements of the health department, he now works from home – "until the last bit of DNA from this virus is out of my body," said the patient. He was tested regularly.

The reactions in the area are partly characterized by uncertainty. Some parents from his daughter's daycare center reacted hysterically. "The parents' advisory board sent the police to the health department because they thought the health department should have closed the daycare," he said in an interview with Bayern 1. The caregivers, on the other hand, were very professional with the situation. Family and friends also treated him normally.

With regard to the further developments of the coronavirus and the emergence of new cases, the patient tells the radio station: "I would advise everyone to stay calm first." It is a kind of cold. "You can detect the virus and then you are stamped. You just have to accept it."