New Jersey man is sharing his experience overcoming COVID-19. He describes the virus as a “nightmare” of an illness after ordering his doctors not to intubate him.

John Mormando is an avid triathlete and cancer survivor. He says that at the peak of his illness while staying at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, he overheard his care takers suggestion that he be placed on a ventilator. It was a suggestion that he strongly opposed.

“In my mind, all I could think of was me laying on a bed in an induced coma with a tube down my throat and I just said, if that happens I’m going to die. So, I just said, this is not gonna happen. I’m not gonna do it,” he says.

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The 53-year-old Mormando says that after about an hour of his most intense symptoms he slowly began to recover. He says that he thinks he contracted the virus after going bowling with a friend on March 1. But he says that he did not notice any symptoms for about five days. Before then, he still commuted to his job in New York City. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 the next week.

 

“[Mayor Bill] de Blasio was saying, ‘Go to Chinatown. It’s fine. You’re gonna be OK.’ That was just a month ago. What happened five weeks ago to today? It’s a totally different world,” he says.

Mormando’s diagnosis came almost exactly two years after his 9/11-related breast cancer diagnosis. He says that people should know to take social distancing seriously – even in their own homes.

“I really implore people to take heed and do it. It really does work. If my wife and son didn’t get sick, with a sick person in the house, you know it works.

Mormando says that before his illness he was preparing for the Ironman Triathlons this summer. He says that if the one set for July is still on, he will give it a shot.