The 95-year-old British monarch, who turns 96 next month, spoke about her experience with the coronavirus during a virtual visit last week to London’s Royal Hospital to celebrate the official opening of the Queen Elizabeth’s unit. The queen had developed “mild cold-like symptoms” after being diagnosed with the virus in February, but was able to continue with “light tasks”, Buckingham Palace said at the time. In an online chat with former COVID-19 patient Asef Hussain and his wife, the Queen overheard Asef telling her about his horrific ordeal after catching the virus in December. He was put on a ventilator for seven weeks and remained oxygenated in a wheelchair after being discharged. “I remember waking my wife up saying she felt there was no oxygen in the room,” he said, holding himself with a cane. “I remember sticking my head out the window, just trying to breathe, trying to get that extra oxygen.” The queen said that the coronavirus left her “very tired and exhausted”. Joe Giddens / Pool via REUTERS Queen Elizabeth replied: “I’m glad you’re getting better and it leaves someone very tired and exhausted, right? This horrible pandemic. Not a nice result. “It was obviously a very scary experience to have COVID very badly, wasn’t it?” he said. Hussain told wueen about the difficulty of not being able to be with his family during his hospital stay, to which he remarked, “Of course not being allowed to see your relatives was very difficult, wasn’t it? “ The large facility was built in just five weeks as severe coronavirus outbreaks soared in London, according to the Guardian. At one point, the 650 hospital staff treated about 800 patients, according to one staff member. “This was undoubtedly the biggest challenge of our careers to date for all of us, and I think it was the scale and pace at which things happened,” a National Health Service nurse told the Queen during the virtual visit. “However, I think the existence of this new facility has allowed us to treat many more patients from all over north-east London.” The visit ended with the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to the unit to the monarch. NHS staff listen to Queen Elizabeth during a video call to celebrate the inauguration of the Queen Elizabeth unit at the hospital. Getty Images “It was very nice to be able to be with you and also to hear what happened and how well it has been achieved,” she said.
