Florida Man Who Thought COVID-19 Was ‘Fake’ Gets Seriously Ill; Wife on Ventilator

Jupiter, Florida (WBAP/KLIF) – A Jupiter, Florida man battling COVID-19 in Florida admits that he used to believe the pandemic was being blown out of proportion. But, after he and his wife were hospitalized with serious infections, he’s urging people to take coronavirus seriously.

After going public with his story, Brian Lee Hitchens on WPTV-TV in West Palm Beach.  he says that he has received an outpouring of well-wishes.

“I don’t want to see anybody go through what I went through,” Hitchens, a ride share driver said from his hospital bed. “This wasn’t some scare tactic that anybody was using. It wasn’t some made-up thing. This is a real virus that you’ve got to take serious.”

Just last month, Hitchens thought the virus was fake:

WATCH:

While he is getting better, his wife has been on a ventilator for 3 weeks.

In a Facebook post, he wrote:

“I am so thankful for all the doctors that are working so hard to try and help my wife get better and all the nurses that are working hard and everybody putting long hours in a day to help make a patient’s day a brighter day. These doctors and nurses and all the hospital staff I am so thankful for.”

In another post, he writes; This journey that we are on started a little over 3 weeks ago and it really amazes me to see what has happened over the last few weeks. Here we were just two people trying to make ends meet living Our Lives pretty much keeping to ourselves to being on the news and seeing the news story being shared by hundreds and thousands of people and so many praying for us and wishing us well is absolutely mind blowing to where I think this whole thing has got to be a dream. 

(Copyright 2020 WBAP/KLIF 24/7 News. This report contains material from the WPTV-TV.)