A pilot who was Vietnam’s most critically ill coronavirus patient is warning others not to underestimate the deadly bug.
Medics didn’t know if Stephen Cameron, from Motherwell, would survive Covid-19 after spending 65 days on life support.
The 42-year-old works for Vietnam Airlines and became one of the country’s earliest and most critical patients.
Since his miraculous recovery, Motherwell FC fan Stephen is pleading with locals not to be ‘blasé’ about the risks of the virus.
He told BBC News: “I’m a living example of what this virus can do and it is serious. People might grumble about having to put on gloves or social distancing two metres apart, but I contracted it and I was under for 10 weeks on life support. People can’t be blasé about this until we have eradicated it.”
Mr Cameron said he was unsure if he would be able to walk again when he came round and was told that at one point he had only a 10 per cent chance of survival.
He added: “When I first woke up I thought was I paralysed? I didn’t know if I was paralysed for life, because I couldn’t feel my feet.”
Mr Cameron said he thought it was “just incredible” that he gained such a following in the south-east Asian country.
He said: “The vast majority of the country knew about ‘Patient 91’, which was my moniker.
“On the equivalent of the 10 o’clock news they had somebody with my X-rays, my CT scans, my stats and actually talking through them in a five-minute segment.
“I mean, that is a bit mind-blowing, if you think about it.”
He added: “When I left the hospital, there were people already queuing up at 8.30am to see me away, which I thought was just incredible.“
