I woke up from a 28 day Covid coma after nurses gave me VIAGRA to treat me
A NURSE who fought for her life in a 28-day Covid coma was saved after colleagues used VIAGRA to treat her.
Monica Almeida, 37, was just 72 hours away from turning off her ventilator when doctors came up with the idea of using the erectile dysfunction drug.
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The mother-of-two's oxygen levels needed dropped by half and her condition improved after a week – meaning she came home for Christmas.
Monica has now praised the quick-thinking doctors for using the drug, which opened her airwaves.
The specialist respiratory nurse from Gainsborough Lincs said: 'I was joking with the consultant after I came over as I knew him.
“He told me it was the Viagra. I laughed and thought he was joking, but he said, 'No, really, you had a big dose of Viagra.'
“It was my little Christmas miracle.”
Monica, who treated Covid patients while working for NHS Lincolnshire, tested positive for the disease in October.
The double-shot mother had lost her sense of taste and smell and was coughing up blood on day four of her diagnosis.
After her oxygen levels dropped the next day, she went to the hospital but was discharged with a prescription and no treatment.
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Within just two hours of returning home, Monica woke up unable to breathe. She was rushed to Lincoln County Hospital where she went straight to the resuscitation room.
Medics tried to return her oxygen levels to normal, but her condition worsened and she was taken to intensive care.
She was put into a coma on November 16 because her condition was so serious that her parents were told they had to fly from Portugal to England to say goodbye.
Monica said: “I could have left at 37, but I think I was a bit of a monkey and kept fighting.”
Since the prognosis looked bleak, doctors decided to use the unusual treatment to help Monica.
The brave Covid victim woke up from her coma on December 14 and was allowed to return home on Christmas Eve.
Viagra has previously been bandied about as a possible way to treat Covid patients, because the little blue pill dilates blood vessels and opens the airways.
Scientists are conducting tests to determine if it can be used in the same way as inhaling nitric oxide, which can increase oxygen levels in the blood.
Viagra could be given to British coronavirus patients if they have agreed to take part in a study to try experimental drugs.
'THE VIAGRA saved me'
Monica said: “It was definitely the Viagra that saved me.
“Within 48 hours it opened up my airwaves and my lungs started responding.
“If you think about how the drug works, it dilates your blood vessels.
“I have asthma and my air sacs needed some help.”
The mother is now recovering at her home, together with her husband Artur and two sons aged nine and fourteen.
She is now urging people to get the vaccine after being told she would have died if she had not been stung.
Covid booster shots offer the best chance of weathering the pandemic, health officials have repeatedly said.
Sun's Jabs Army campaign is helping to get vital extra vaccines into Britons' arms to avert the need for new restrictions.
Monica said: “There are people who say the vaccine has killed people. I don't deny that there are people who react and get bad with the vaccine, but when we look at the number of deaths among unvaccinated people, there is a big message to get your shot.
“It concerns me, especially in Lincolnshire, that people are against the vaccine.
“I never expected to get as sick as I did at the age of 37. I never thought this would happen to me and I want people to take it more seriously.”
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