'You listen to them die': Blind woman shares harrowing experience in ICU with COVID-19

CTV National News: Omicron infecting youth Heather Butts has the story of one of Ontario's youngest Canadians who is now infected with the COVID-19 Omicron variant.

TORONTO — A young Ontario woman who was admitted to the ICU for five days with COVID-19 says being a blind person made the trauma of fighting for her life all that more frightening.

Thirty-year-old Michelle Woolfrey told CTV National News that she spent a total of eight days in the hospital.

"It was really scary. It was really hard. I wish people could see what it was like in there," Woolfrey said.

Being blind, Woolfrey says she relies on her guide dog and heightened sense of hearing to help her navigate throughout her daily life.

However, she said being blind made her battle against COVID-19 even worse.

"People are really sick and instead of being in an ICU, where people are really sick and getting better, people are really sick and they're dying, and you listen to them die a slow painful death," Woolfrey explained.

"At 30 years old, I don't think that I have any frame of reference for what it’s like to sit in a hospital bed and listen to someone die next to you," she added.

Woolfrey believes she contracted the coronavirus while in an emergency room a few weeks ago, when she was being treated for an anaphylactic reaction.

Days later, Woolfrey says, she was at home with COVID-19 when the virus exacerbated her autoimmune disease, sending her to the hospital for supplemental oxygen.

No one was allowed in the hospital with her, which Woolfrey said is difficult for someone who relies on others for sight.

"My mom couldn’t sit by my bedside, no one could hold my hand," she said.

"To be in that situation and not have any support with me… the only thing I could do was put my headphones in and call a friend."

Alone in the ICU and only able to listen to the sounds around her, Woolfrey said she heard firsthand the tough decisions hospital staff have been forced to make amid the pandemic.

"Another code blue is called, another patient needs to come up to the ICU, and the doctors and nurses don't have anywhere to put them. To sit there and think about what that means for that person’s family is really hard," Woolfrey said.

She says she could tell that decisions like these are weighing heavily on medical staff.

"You can just see the exhaustion in the staff, they're burnt out," Woolfrey said. "They're doing a great job, everyone I worked with was fantastic, [but it] feels like a never ending cycle."

Woolfrey left the hospital on Thursday and said another COVID-19 patient has likely already filled her hospital bed.

While she is out of the ICU, Woolfrey said she still struggles to catch her breath at times. She hopes her story will urge other young Canadians to take the virus seriously.

"The fever, throwing up is gone. I would say the harder symptoms are still here and will be for a while I think," she said.