OSHKOSH, Wis. — It’s a fight like no other.
For more than a week, Mark Schultz has been in a special hospital room surrounded by doctors and staff dressed in full protective gear. At times, he wasn't sure he’d leave the room alive.
“The first day was the worst, I couldn’t breathe. I literally felt like I was drowning,” he said about the early stages of COVD-19. “It was suffering like hypoxia, altitude sickness when you can’t catch your breath. You think your next breath is your last breath. You just want to die, you felt like that. It was like that for five days.”
Over the weekend, the condition of the 64-year-old from Oshkosh improved. He was off oxygen Monday morning and only coughed on occasion.
Through a series of YouTube videos and interviews with the media, he’s telling others about his experience — and trying to convince those who are skeptical of the nature of the illness.
“This is real and this isn’t fake. It’s not okay to get this disease, this virus. You’ve got to take it, serious people, you can’t spread it,” Schultz said. “You’ve got to wear your mask, you’ve got to social distance. I’m going to keep hammering that theme home forever. You’ve got to take care of your community.”
Almost 8,500 people across the state — about 6 percent of those who have been, or are, sick — have been hospitalized by the virus since the pandemic began, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Another 1,474 have died. That’s about 1 percent of all illnesses in the state.
Both businesses Shultz co-owns — Oblio’s Lounge and Primo Restaurant — have been closed since he fell ill.
“We did everything the right way and you can still get it,” he said. “But you still gotta do it the right way.”
In a YouTube video posted late Monday afternoon, Schultz said he was cleared to go home.
Schultz gives credit to staff and doctors at Ascension Northeast Wisconsin Mercy Hospital in Oshkosh for his care and recovery -- as well as friends and family who supported him through the hospital stay.
“I’ve talked to people who haven’t had a day off in 18 days. God bless these people. We’re lucky,” he said. ”I’m lucky.”