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BROOKSVILLE, Fla. - He was the picture of health and he never thought he would get COVID-19. But now a local ICU patient has a positive prognosis and a unique way to help others.
"I’m a normal guy," insisted Erick Mejia. "I’m 35 years old. I have two boys. I never had any medical issues."
But now, from a hospital bed, Mejia says he caught COVID-19 at a party. He’s a DJ and he says he caught it from someone on the dance floor.
"I said, you know what, I’m far away, there’s only a few people, I’m not going to wear the mask. I made a horrible decision and it cost me greatly," he said.
Now, instead of a microphone, Mejia has a new Facebook page and blog called Tacos for Erick. It’s a sometimes lighthearted look at a near-death experience.
He says it started like a cold. "But the next day I started to get shortness of breath and that’s when it got scary."
Days later it turned into double pneumonia.
Courtesy Erick Mejia
He’s being treated at Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville. He’s says he’s had time to look back on how it started.
"You really start to panic, and it was a very fast downturn," he recalled. "The next couple of days you’re thinking - what’s going to happen?"
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It’s already been nearly three weeks in the hospital. Mejia says he is free of COVID but now faces four more weeks of therapy and blogging about his experience.
"I was very flip-floppy on the vaccine," he admitted. "It was like some other news that just comes out of nowhere."
He shares his experience for what it’s worth.
"I don’t want to advocate for anybody individually," he added. "Everybody has to make their own decision, but I wish someone would have yanked me by the ear and made me do it."
LINK: For his firsthand account visit www.facebook.com/TacosForErick/