The 45-year-old Kenner lawyer who has undergone a shocking ordeal fighting off the new coronavirus is showing signs of improvement, his wife said Monday.

Heaven Frilot said her husband Mark, a construction litigator who didn't have serious health problems before his diagnosis last week, has been taken off a drug that blocks his movements and is taking some breaths on his own.

Doctors gave Mark Frilot the paralytic and put him on a ventilator to battle severe symptoms of COVID-19, the virus that appears to have spread rapidly through the New Orleans area in recent days.

"I'm happy to let everyone know that Mark is improving," Heaven Frilot said in a Facebook message. "Thank you so much for your prayers and continued support!"

'It could happen to anybody': Kenner lawyer, 45, in critical care with coronavirus, wife says Mark Frilot took medicines to treat what he thought for several days was a case of the flu, but he just couldn’t turn the corner.

The attorney's case has drawn widespread attention both because he was apparently healthy before he contracted COVID-19 and also because problems diagnosing the coronavirus appear to have played a part in his turn for the worse.

He first presented with a mild fever and went to an urgent care clinic on March 8, his wife said. But doctors there diagnosed him with the flu and prescribed him Tamiflu.

It was only after he suffered a delusional episode and went to the hospital that the couple learned Frilot had actually tested negative for the flu from the start, Heaven Frilot said. He was tested for and diagnosed with COVID-19.

Despite signs of improvement, Mark Frilot remains sedated and unable to communicate.

COVID-19 can cause serious respiratory problems and about 20 percent of people who catch it need hospital care, according to the World Health Organization.

Even after their discharge, patients can suffer from a 20 to 30 percent reduction in their lung function, doctors in Hong Kong have said.

Heaven Frilot warned people over the weekend not to take the threat of the new coronavirus lightly.

“It could happen to anybody,” she said.