NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Nashville man who tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday wants his story to serve as a warning for people who question the seriousness of the virus.
Adam Denison and his husband traveled on a cruise from Key West to the Bahamas a little more than a week ago. He said they were only slightly concerned about getting the novel coronavirus, as they washed and sanitized their hands religiously throughout the trip.
“I don’t think we touched a handrail the entire time we were on the ship,” Denison explained.
A day after Denison returned to Nashville, he said he experienced extreme nasal congestion, but was still not concerned because the symptom was not commonly associated with COVID-19.
He explained he then “started getting a fever, “which turned into hacking, really bad coughing.”
Someone else on his cruise later tested positive for the coronavirus, so Denison said he and his husband went to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center testing site to be checked out. Their results were returned Wednesday morning and Denison revealed they both tested positive for COVID-19.
“It is physically taxing to cough that much,” Denison explained. “Based on what I’ve experienced, this is not your normal flu. It’s worse. It has felt worse for a week for me anyway. It’s not easy to get over. It’s taken me a full week and I’m still coughing off and on.”
He added, “it kind of makes me feel like I have a responsibility to share my story and make sure that as many people as possible can understand that they need to be taking the advice of professionals and doing what’s needed to stop it.”
Denison is an otherwise healthy 34-year-old man but said his concern is for the older population.
“I worry about my parents. Just the coughing alone would debilitate them to where they’d probably have to be hospitalized,” he explained.
Denison added, “We should all be acting like we already have it and don’t want to spread it to other people.”
The Nashville man is urging people to heed the warnings and listen to his story. He has asked people to practice “social distancing” in an attempt to lessen the number of those with the virus.