MILWAUKEE, Wis. — With the COVID-19 public health emergency soon coming to an end, one Milwaukee woman reflects on how the pandemic changed her life forever.
Ever since Carmen Lerma had her bout with the COVID-19 in July 2020, she has said she always makes it a point to wear a mask when out in public. She remembers having a fever, losing her sense of taste and having a lot of trouble breathing.
“I felt like I was a fish,” Lerma said. “You know how you get a fish and take them out of the bowl and gasping for air. I had a machine on a daily basis that was at 100% oxygen level due to one being completely shut and the other one was at 75.”
Lerma said she was prepared for the possibility that she might not survive.
“It was hard. I was also told that there was nothing they could do for me other than to make me comfortable,” she said. “Unless I get new lungs, I wasn’t going to make it.”
Fortunately, her doctors were able to help her get a double lung transplant. She spent the next five and a half months in the hospital recovering.
While Lerma does not have COVID-19 now, she still has to go to the hospital often.
“I have to come every week and get blood work. I have to make sure my rejection levels are not high, or they are not too low because there is always an effect to it,” she said. “I basically take about 52 pills a day to be able to control it. I inherited diabetes, so I do my insulin and thyroids.”
With the official declaration of the end of COVID-19 as a public health emergency on Thursday, Lerma is concerned about what this could mean in the future.
“There’s still COVID out there,” Lerma said. “People will be unprotected. People would not take the shot, and that puts me in a situation where now I have to force myself to wear my mask and to stay away from what I love to do because it’s open.”
Lerma hopes the public will continue to take COVID-19 risks seriously even after the pandemic designation is gone. She believes it is important for everyone to recognize the virus still has the ability to alter your life in ways you may not be thinking about.