PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island’s first confirmed coronavirus patient, the vice principal of student life at Saint Raphael Academy who led a field trip to Europe, spoke to The Wall Street Journal from the ICU at Miriam Hospital.

Marc Thibault, 48, who became one of the first patients diagnosed in the United States, said he used hand sanitizer frequently during the Feb. 14-22 trip, but in Italy, he shared a microphone with a tour guide who said he was coming down with the flu.

He told the Wall Street Journal that he has asthma but exercises every day and rarely gets sick.

He felt sluggish on the flight home. He stayed home from work but went to a walk-in clinic when he felt worse, then a few days later to a hospital. Doctors at both places decided his symptoms did not qualify him for the coronavirus test, but the hospital contacted the R.I. Department of Health, which told him to get tested immediately.

He was tested at Miriam Hospital and admitted on Feb. 27.

Then, he said, the illness hit him "like a hurricane."

He struggled to breathe. His lungs filled with fluid, and nurses in hazmat-style suits had to drain them every two hours.

The worst part, he said, was the feeling of choking. "You feel like you’re asphyxiating, and you’re panicking because you can’t breathe."

He kept telling himself, "Just get through the next hour, the next hour, the next hour."

At one point, he was aware that a priest in protective gear was about to administer last rites. He wrote a note to his wife saying that if his lungs collapsed, he did not want to be put on life support.

"I was one inch from death," he told the WSJ on Tuesday.

"It’s alarming when I hear people minimize it as a simple cold," he said. "It almost killed me."

— dnaylor@providencejournal.com

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