A fit-and-healthy mother who struggled to breathe after being infected with coronavirus has issued a stark warning to fellow Britons to ‘not take any chances’.
Tara Jane Langston, 39, filmed herself with her phone in the intensive care unit at Hillingdon Hospital in west London pleading with others to take the deadly COVID-19 seriously.
She was rushed to hospital last Friday and tested positive for the virus on Sunday.
Gasping for breath and coughing, she made the harrowing video the following day and sent it as a Whatsapp message to her colleagues warning them to take care.
Tara Jane Langston, 39, filmed herself with her phone in the intensive care unit at Hillingdon Hospital in west London pleading with others to take the deadly COVID-19 seriously
The shocking video, which has gone viral on social media, appears to show it is not just the elderly or those with underlying health conditions who are at risk.
The mother-of-two is now recovering from her ordeal after catching the virus, which has infected 2,695 people and killed 137 in Britain alone.
Speaking to the camera Ms Langston says: ‘I’m in the intensive care unit and I can’t breathe without this. They’ve had to sew that into my artery. I’ve got a cannula, another cannula and a catheter. I’m actually ten times better than what I was before. I’ve lost count of the days.
‘If anyone still smokes, put the cigarettes down because I’m telling you now you need your f***ing lungs and, please, none of you take any chances, I mean it, because if it gets really bad than you’re going to end up here.
‘My body is fighting this so once again don’t take any chances.’
Ms Langston, from north west London, who is now out of intensive care, was initially seen by doctors nearly 11 days ago when she started feeling unwell after a trip to Krakow in Poland with husband Richard and their two daughters.
She took a cab to Hillingdon Hospital where she was diagnosed with a chest infection and given antibiotics.
Pictured: Mother-of-two Ms Langston before she tested positive for the coronavirus last week
She was rushed to hospital last Friday and tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday
Her health, however, deteriorated throughout last week and she was rushed by ambulance back to hospital where she was this time diagnosed with pneumonia.
Ms Langston was then tested for the coronavirus and the results came back positive on Sunday, prompting her to be rushed into intensive care.
Her husband Richard, 34, told MailOnline: ‘She first complained of feeling unwell two Sundays ago.
‘She said she had stabbing pains in her back and lungs which was making it difficult for her to breathe. We called the hospital, which laid on a taxi for her and she was treated and diagnosed with a chest infection and given some antibiotics.
‘She wasn’t swabbed at that point because we’d not been to any at risk country or come into contact with anyone who had the virus.
‘But throughout last week she wasn’t getting any better, in fact if anything she’d worsened and was shaking and shivering despite taking paracetamol and Ibuprofen.
‘On Friday it got really bad and we were obviously worried it could be the coronavirus so called an ambulance. Tara was taken back to Hillingdon and this time the medics thought she might have pneumonia but they also tested her for coronavirus.
‘The treatment she’d been given for pneumonia didn’t seem to be working over the weekend and on Sunday her coronavirus test results came back as positive.
‘She was rushed straight into intensive care and at one point we thought she might have to be sedated and go on a ventilator but fortunately she was strong enough for that not to happen.
‘But she was still very poorly. She wanted to make it clear for others that it isn’t just the elderly who are at risk from this virus which is why she made that video.
‘Originally it was sent only to her work colleagues but it’s now gone viral on Twitter and Facebook.
‘Tara goes to the gym all the time and has no underlying health conditions. She made the point of addressing people who smoke because she knows how much you need your lungs if you get this virus.
‘She was struggling as someone who is a non-smoker and healthy and so was keen to point out how much worse it would be for a smoker.
‘We don’t know how she contracted coronavirus. We returned from a trip to Krakow in Poland on February 26 and had gone to Auschwitz where there were people from all over the world.
‘But she could have possibly have got it from going to the gym. She’s out of intensive care now and is making good progress. We just want her back at home.’