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A 41-year-old Barrie, Ont., man who was diagnosed with COVID-19 is recovering at home after he was on life support at a local hospital.

Rene Segura started experiencing shortness of breath on March 18, but he didn’t think it was the novel coronavirus at first.

“On March 10, he had a very slight headache, and it was lingering but slight, and he had issues sleeping,” Tracy Segura, Rene’s wife, told Global News Wednesday.

“We did not think anything of COVID at this point.”

Tracy encouraged Rene to stay home, which he did, but by March 18, his condition had taken a sharp turn, and he had trouble breathing. The next morning, he got up early and went to an assessment centre, where he had his blood pressure and heart rate checked.

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In the end, he was told that he had a cold and to go home, according to Tracy.

“I was concerned,” Tracy told Global News. The next morning, on March 20, the two went to the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH), although Tracy wasn’t allowed past the lobby.

“I just had to tear myself away from him, and it took so much in me to just not go with him,” she said. “

“It was the first time in 18 years that I’ve ever been away from him for this long. We work together, we live together, we do everything together — to be apart from him was the hardest thing.” Tweet This

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Once Rene entered the hospital, he was given a breathing mask, Tracy said. He was also swabbed and put in a room, where he was hooked up to a ventilator.

“They ended up calling us and telling us that before he gets worse, they have to do an emergency intubation. They want to intubate him now and put him on life support,” Tracy said.

“Thankfully, they took him off, and he’s been recovering since.”

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When Rene found out about his positive COVID-19 diagnosis, it was after he had woken up from being sedated.

“I’ve seen it on the news,” Rene said. “I don’t want to say I was scared, but I knew about it enough that I knew it would attack older people more…I just looked at it as, ‘I’m hooked up to a lot of machines right now.'”

Rene and Tracy hadn’t travelled recently and aren’t sure how Rene acquired the virus. He also doesn’t have any pre-existing health conditions.

“The word COVID was scary for me,” Tracy said, adding that the doctor reassured her by telling her that Rene is young and without underlying health issues.

“He said, ‘All I can tell you is to hold onto those things,'” Tracy added. “‘He’s got a fighting chance because he’s young and he’s healthy.'”

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Rene came home to his family on Tuesday, and his family’s self-isolation period ends on Friday.

“My whole family tested negative…so at that point, we’re good to go,” Tracy said.

“Even though isolation is up for us, I do want to kind of keep low-key right now. I don’t really want to step out because I don’t want to bring anything else into our house.”

The couple owns a local cafe, the Creative Bean, which has been closed for the time being. The mom and pop shop is a combination of both Rene and Tracy’s dreams.

“I’m the Creative and he’s the Bean,” Tracey said.

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While their shop is closed, there are expenses to pay, but according to Tracy, she and Rene don’t qualify for the government grants that have been offered.

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“The 75 per cent wage subsidizing they have…it doesn’t mean anything to me,” Tracy said.

“We don’t have a payroll, so what does that do for me? Then the $40,000 loan — well, first of all, paying that back would be hard. Secondly, you have to have like $50,000 into payroll in 2019 to qualify.”

Looking forward, Tracy said she hopes to see Rene fully recover and back to running the cafe.

“Stay positive through all this,” Rene said. “It is a scary time in our lives that we’re going through, but we have to stay positive.”

In Simcoe Muskoka, there have been 62 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, including four deaths. As of Wednesday evening, Ontario has reported 2,392 confirmed COVID-19 cases.