A team of RTL journalists broadcast this Sunday a report on a man infected with the coronavirus and whose chances of life were estimated at 1% chance. Today, he takes the floor to call for compliance with health safety rules.
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It’s a story that ends well and yet Christophe Koopmans, 45 years old and father of two daughters, almost joined the 9,821 Belgian deaths due to Covid-19 as of July 26. While he does not present any health problem in normal times, this inhabitant of Sint-Truiden contracted a very aggressive version of Covid-19. For weeks, he struggles between life and death. Now recovered, he told his ordeal to RTL to warn of the dangerousness of the disease, at the very moment when the fear of a second wave is becoming more concrete.
“A miracle” which recalls the dangerousness of the disease
His battle with the disease begins on March 19. After having participated in a carnival in his city as noted by the VRT, Christophe Koopmans falls ill. ” I thought it was a simple flu. I called the doctor and told me at the moment you have no symptoms of covid-19. Rest and take some Dafalgan. Two, three days later, I want to go up to bed. I walked up the stairs in the middle and stopped. I no longer knew how to climb. I told my wife I was going to sleep in the chair “, He tells RTL.
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But the next day, the situation no longer becomes tenable. He was called for an ambulance and was taken to the nearby Sint-Truiden hospital. The descent into hell then continues with a visit to intensive care, then to the Leuven hospital where doctors tell him that he must be placed in an artificial coma. ” I called my wife on a Tuesday evening. I told him: they are going to put me in a coma. There you feel, very small. I said to myself: will they ever wake me up? He said. Then begins a long sleep … eleven weeks. Doctors are then hardly optimistic, estimating his chances of surviving at 1%. ” Sometimes the hospital would call in the middle of the night and say “get ready, it’s really not okay. It’s not going to be okay” ».
Finally, he wakes up to a doctor who explains the situation to him: “ It’s okay ? You are in intensive care in Leuven. You can’t speak yet. You with a pipe. Okay ? But things are already much better “. Then begins a long rehabilitation work of more than five weeks to relearn how to speak, eat, move … Today, he is out of the woods and nicknamed ” the miracle of Leuven ». « My kidneys are working fine. All my organs too. I have been very lucky », He rejoices.
But with the context of the resumption of the epidemic, Christophe Koopmans did not want to remain silent and preferred to testify to encourage the population to respect health security measures: ” This is not for laughs. It’s not just the flu. Please follow the rules published in the media ».
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