‘Lucky to be here’: Quebec man survives month-long coma due to COVID, warns of virus
Posted April 29, 2022 1:03 pm.
Last Updated April 29, 2022 6:18 pm.
A 46-year-old, triple-vaccinated father from Joliette, Quebec – about 50 kilometers northeast of Montreal – was almost among the statistics of the nearly 15,000 Quebecers who lost their lives due to COVID-19.
But Nicolas Chicoine pulled through and survived a month-long coma.
“I consider myself lucky to be here today, but the fight continues, it’s not finished,” Chicoine said in French.
Credit: Nancy Lebeau / handout
On Jan. 31, Chicoine tested positive for COVID. In the weeks that followed, his condition worsened and he developed double pneumonia.
After a few ER visits, he was hospitalized in Joliette on March 9. Then days later on March 14, he was transferred to the ICU at Montreal’s Sacré-Cœur hospital.
A total shock for the otherwise healthy man.
“I’m a really active guy, he said. “I bike, I work in a physical domain as a mechanic, I’m a man of the woods, I walk a lot, I’m not a sedentary person.”
Before thy.
Credit: Nancy Lebeau / handout
Doctors discovered he had a mass between his heart and his lungs, known as thymoma.
“We didn’t know he didn’t have antibodies,” said his spouse of more than 20 years, Nancy Lebeau. “He was immunocompromised, and it was at that point that he deteriorated because his three vaccines didn’t produce antibodies.”
Placed in an artificial coma, it was a rollercoaster, with some close calls.
“We were very worried,” said Lebeau. “Nicolas had three or four relapses, enough to not know if he’d make it through the night or how he would be the next morning.”
Credit: Nancy Lebeau / handout
Credit: Nancy Lebeau / handout
Lebeau and his daughters were by constantly by his side, mostly watching him through a window or playing him songs through an iPad.
“As of the 10th of April, we were able to breathe,” Lebeau said. “When he started to wake up and we found that he had all of his memory, that he didn’t forget anything.”
From there, things improved. He had to learn how to walk again, how to eat and how to write.
Credit: Nancy Lebeau / handout
On Thursday, Nicolas returned home.
“I’m very very happy, but there are other sentiments,” Chicoine said. “Since I’m more dependent, I can’t do everything myself, it’s hard, but overall things are looking up.”
A little bit of a long road ahead for Chicoine, who lost 40 pounds since his hospitalization. It could take months before he returns to his old self.
“We will do physio, rehabilitation,” Lebeau said. “We’ll take our time and Nicolas will succeed.”
Credit: Nancy Lebeau / handout
Chicoine and his family are now forever changed by COVID, being extra careful and calling on others to do the same.
“We didn’t think it would happen to us,” he said. “But you don’t know what you have in you, if it’s a cancer that can attack your system.”
“So don’t think it can only happen to others. Look after yourself.”
