Killarney woman who contracted COVID appeals for unvaccinated to get the jab

By Michelle Crean

A Killarney woman who this week ended up in hospital battling COVID is appealing for people to get vaccinated.

Lotte Lyne from Rathanane, Kilcummin, says although she had her vaccines, she still ended up catching the virus – but fears the outcome could have been much worse if she hadn’t her jabs.

On Saturday November 27, Lotte came down with a fever, was feeling very nauseous, and lost her sense of smell and felt very unwell which lasted about five to six days.

Then, she told the Killarney Advertiser that all those symptoms stopped, but her breathing was affected and she then developed a chesty cough.

“I ended up in A&E Friday with oxygen levels affected and difficulties in breathing,” Lotte said.

“They put me on two antibiotics and sent me home again. But over the weekend, I was struggling to keep up my oxygen levels and had difficulty breathing. We had to call an ambulance on Saturday. The paramedics where great and felt my vitals were all stable so I got the option to stay at home as I could well end up waiting in the ambulance for many hours if I went to A&E. I chose to stay home, but I got worse again from there and spoke to my doctor Monday and she felt I should be in hospital. I was still reluctant to go as I did not want to put the health services under more pressure.”

However, by Tuesday she had declined further, and her doctor told her to call an ambulance, even though Storm Barra was raging across the county.

“I had to come over during the storm,” she explained. “Paramedics gave me oxygen straight away on the way over and it immediately improved my oxygen levels, but in A&E if oxygen was removed it dropped again. My blood was also off so they needed to rule out a clot in my lungs with a CT scan. Thanks be to God it was clear. They put me back on oxygen and admitted me to a COVID ward. I have a bit of an infection in the lungs but not bad at all, so treating that with antibiotics. My oxygen levels are stable all day without the oxygen, but my breathing is still under pressure.”

Lotte suffers from asthma and that, she says, is what caused the breathing symptoms due to COVID, and she’s been put on two weeks of steroids for that.

“I could have been so much worse if I was not vaccinated, I truly believe that I would have ended up in ICU and who knows if I would have survived. That is why, even though I got COVID and I got quite sick, I am so grateful I got the vaccine as I know it prevented a far worse outcome,” she said.

“My message to the unvaccinated, maybe they are standing on the sideline still, maybe they don’t trust the vaccine, or they don’t feel they need it, what I want to say to them is that they need to be logical, use their critical thinking and follow the documented science. Don’t just listen to everyone and everything on social media, be critical, follow through to the source and use common sense. Look at my story and please, please just go get the vaccine as soon as possible, it is the only smart thing to do. Don’t wait till you get COVID and then realise you were wrong because it will be way to late then.”