GREENSBORO, N.C. — Each day we go over the COVID-19 numbers for our state - telling you the number of people with the virus and how many have it bad enough to be in the hospital.
Behind every number is a person, a story, and a Greensboro pastor is one of them.
James Bledsoe is still dealing with the effects of his battle with COVID-19. He went to the hospital the week before Thanksgiving with an onslaught of symptoms that he says hit him all at once. He spent a week in the COVID unit at Cone Health's Green Valley Campus fighting for his life and fearing the worst.
"I had it severe enough that I literally thought that I was dying, literally," he said. "I was all alone because they had me in isolation, they had the door closed, no one in, no one out."
He said the virus affected nearly every part of him, including his mental state.
"I was alone, I was afraid, not of dying but I was afraid my wife would be left by herself," he said. "So all of the emotions."
Bledsoe was discharged from the hospital only to be back days later after collapsing at home. His doctors told him he was dehydrated, his kidneys and lungs weren't working properly and his blood pressure dropped. He's now home, weeks later and still fighting off pneumonia he got from his bought with COVID. He says the virus and the pandemic are not things to take lightly.
"If I don't get anything else across, the seriousness of this, if people sit down and think this thing through, without having experienced it maybe, just think it through, the people who have died because of COVID or family members – it has so many residuals Maddie. It's not like I had COVID and got over it."
Bledsoe said his friends, family and church members at Faithway Baptist Church were there for him and that made all the difference.