MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A local pastor is speaking out on his experience after recovering from COVID-19.
Pastor Patrick Lewis of St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church is full of praise after surviving something he thought would kill him.
“I just said to the Lord, ‘Lord I ain’t ready for you to come and get me. But I do want you to come and see about me,'” Lewis said.
When he was traveling in mid-March, he never associated his tiredness and cough with the coronavirus.
“I was very winded trying to get to my terminal gate. My body had started tightening up,” Lewis said.
He went almost a week before he knew something was very wrong.
“I was very very weak, very tired,” Lewis said. “I had this nagging, consistent cough. I coughed over and over, and it progressively got worse and worse.”
He headed to his doctor, who sent him straight to Methodist North, where his test came back positive for COVID-19.
“My greatest struggle was in my breathing,” Lewis said. “This thing had attacked my lungs so that is very very difficult to breathe and the sleep.”
The pastor went through 14 days of quarantine. When he went back to the doctor, he said he was all better. He was even able to come off medication he had been on for years.
“He took me off of all that,” Lewis said. “So my body has healed. The only remembrance I have of anything is the struggle with my lungs.”
Pastor Lewis took to Facebook to share his testimony, to thank everyone for their prayers and to give praise.
“I have been out and I have been down. I have been a very, very sick man,” Lewis said.
For any who doubt, he said, “This COVID-19 is real, and its nothing to play with.”
