Huntsville woman says she’ll now get vaccinated after being hospitalized with COVID-19

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - Exhausted mentally and physically: that’s the reality for our doctors and nurses.

Huntsville Hospital is short 500 nurses right now to meet the demand COVID is presenting, according to the CEO.

A woman we spoke with Wednesday night spent two weeks battling COVID-19 at Huntsville Hospital. She says before she got sick, she used to laugh at the thought of getting the vaccine.

That’s no longer the case.

”It made it 10 times worse for me.” A battle to breathe recently got worse for Ethel Poon.

The asthma patient tested positive for COVID-19 and was brought to Huntsville Hospital.

”They’re like, ‘we’re going to find a bed because you can’t go anywhere,’” she said.

Poon says one of the first things she noticed about the staff when she checked in was, “when I got there, everyone looked exhausted. I felt guilty every time I hit the button.”

She spent 15 days fighting the virus.

“Physically my body hurt. I did not want to get out of bed. About killed me.”

She checked out a week ago, leaving with a change of heart.

“Before COVID, before me having it I was very arrogant about it. People were like, ‘Oh well you should get vaccinated,’ and I was like, ‘you’re funny.’ I’m now going to get vaccinated because I went through it and don’t want to go back through it,” she explained.

Like Poon, there are many people who still have not received the shot.

“It’s simple. It’s been given safely to several 100 million people. There’s still over 100,000 people in Madison County, who are eligible for the vaccine and haven’t had it,” says Jeff Samz, CEO of Huntsville Hospital.

“If you did get it and weren’t vaccinated, it’s a lot harder to get over,” Poon said.

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