$cam-U-Well_Jack$on
Superstar
No sympathy for anyone involved.
Coronavirus Tales : From Fiction to Reality
- Thread starter bnew
- Start date
No sympathy for anyone involved.
Last edited:
Lakeland GOP's James Ring contracts COVID, encourages people to wear a mask and get vaccinated
Lakeland GOP's James Ring contracts COVID, encourages people to wear a mask and get vaccinated
Kimberly C. Moore
The Ledger
LAKELAND — James Ring, president of the Republican Party of Lakeland, says he is blessed to be alive after being “certain I was dying” of COVID-19, saying he contracted it at a national volleyball tournament in which his twin daughters played nearly three weeks ago in Orlando.
“I haven’t shared this with many people, but I just spent the last few days confined to a small room in the COVID unit at Lakeland Regional Health with COVID pneumonia in both my lungs,” Ring shared in a private text message and then on Facebook.
Ring is a former Lakeland Police sergeant and a U.S. Army Reserves Chief Warrant Officer, who has guarded senior military officials during tours in Washington, D.C. and trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is known locally for his leadership skills, thoughtfulness, kind demeanor and his ability to bring people together.
He describes himself as a healthy and fit 39-year-old, with no history of high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes, and no pre-existing conditions. While in Washington, he was required to wear a mask for work and was fastidious about it. He came home to Lakeland earlier this year after his final tour — but before vaccines were available for healthy people in their 30s.
Ring and his wife, Candi, a USF cyber-security specialist, moved into a new home near Lake Hollingsworth and Ring got busy working at his family’s roofing company while becoming the new GOP leader in Lakeland.
On June 19-20, the couple took their three daughters, Faith, Hope and Grace, to Orlando for the 12-year-old twins’ volleyball tournament.
“There were tens of thousands of people from all over the United States at the tournament,” Ring said. “It was a great time and I was glad to see people starting to act normal and get out of the house. I returned home feeling great.”
He admits that, since he left Washington, he hasn’t been as careful about wearing a mask and he didn’t make the vaccine a priority.
“I’m a firm believer in personal choice,” Ring said. “We’re all free to make our own choices, but we’re not free of the consequences of those choices. I’m not anti-vax, but I’ve never taken the time to get the vaccine. I’m not anti-mask, but I’m not very good about remembering to wear one.”
"I couldn’t catch my breath and was certain I was dying”
He said he began to feel achy on Thursday, June 24, but he didn’t think much of it because he’s normally so healthy. On Friday, he felt worse, but his rapid COVID test came back negative and he thought he had caught a bad cold. Staying home and resting over the weekend didn’t help and on Tuesday, June 29, he tested positive for COVID. He said his condition kept worsening.
“My temperature spiked, I couldn’t breathe and my blood oxygen levels crashed. I went to the ER on the 10th night and was given an IV with an experimental antiviral antibody medicine for high-risk patients (I technically didn’t meet the definition for high-risk patient, but the doctor could see my body wasn’t handling the virus well and he showed me some grace),” Ring wrote on Facebook. “I was then sent home from the ER, only to return later the following evening when my temperature once again spiked, I was shaking uncontrollably, and my blood oxygen levels dropped dangerously low to 78. I couldn’t catch my breath and was certain I was dying.”
He said in a telephone interview that he drove himself to the hospital, hoping he wouldn’t die on the way there, as his wife stayed home with their daughters.
Ring said the emergency room doctor immediately admitted him into the COVID unit. Both his lungs were filled with COVID-19 pneumonia and the virus had thickened his blood, making him susceptible to clots in his heart, lungs, and legs, “which could ultimately prove fatal.” He said they gave him steroids for his lungs, a breathing treatment, shots in his stomach to thin his blood, and “a cocktail of medications to fight the infection in my lungs.”
He said no one would touch him in any kind of comforting way and, understandably, everyone wore biohazard suits. Ring described a hospital ward filled with patients like himself — perilously close to dying.
“The nights were filled with the sounds of people coughing uncontrollably and crying. Everyone was alone and desperate for help,” Ring said. “I remember looking out my window with the view of Lakeland Hills Boulevard, watching (Lakeland Police) cars pass and remembering how I used to be one of them. I cried and cried as I began to accept that I probably wasn’t going to make it out of the hospital alive. Everyday had just been more bad news and my symptoms kept getting worse.”
As a soldier has done tours in and taken multiple trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the holiday weekend, he found himself praying by the window, crying. And that's when a patient care assistant named Charles came into the room and saw him.
“He walked up to me, grabbed my hand (the first physical touch I had felt in a long while) and began to pray for comfort, peace and healing over me. After he finished praying, he grabbed me by my shoulders and said, ‘Look at me, James — we’re brothers in Christ - aren’t we?’ I said yes and he said, ‘You’re going to be okay - you have to believe that,’” Ring recalled Tuesday. “He literally gave me hope and that’s when things started turning around for me. I was released a couple nights later and now I’m finally home recovering. I’m still not out of the woods, but I’m home and that’s progress. Praise God!”
Ring said in a text message that Charles will always be a hero to him.
"This pandemic is not over"
Ring doesn't know if he had the delta variant of COVID-19, saying the hospital hasn't told him. He has a warning for those who think COVID is fake or like a cold or the flu.
"I contracted the virus and unknowingly passed it to some of the people I love the most,” declining to say publicly who that is. He added that they are all doing ok. “I shared my story to say this - this pandemic is not over. Please take it seriously and remember to wear a mask. Even if you think they’re silly, it’s better than sitting all alone in a COVID unit wishing you had.”
Wearing a mask and getting a vaccine are personal choices, he said but they’re ones he hopes everyone decides to make.
“Those decisions could affect the people you love the most,” Ring said. “I didn’t and I almost paid for it with my life.”
Lakeland GOP's James Ring contracts COVID, encourages people to wear a mask and get vaccinated
Kimberly C. Moore
The Ledger
LAKELAND — James Ring, president of the Republican Party of Lakeland, says he is blessed to be alive after being “certain I was dying” of COVID-19, saying he contracted it at a national volleyball tournament in which his twin daughters played nearly three weeks ago in Orlando.
“I haven’t shared this with many people, but I just spent the last few days confined to a small room in the COVID unit at Lakeland Regional Health with COVID pneumonia in both my lungs,” Ring shared in a private text message and then on Facebook.
Ring is a former Lakeland Police sergeant and a U.S. Army Reserves Chief Warrant Officer, who has guarded senior military officials during tours in Washington, D.C. and trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is known locally for his leadership skills, thoughtfulness, kind demeanor and his ability to bring people together.
He describes himself as a healthy and fit 39-year-old, with no history of high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes, and no pre-existing conditions. While in Washington, he was required to wear a mask for work and was fastidious about it. He came home to Lakeland earlier this year after his final tour — but before vaccines were available for healthy people in their 30s.
Ring and his wife, Candi, a USF cyber-security specialist, moved into a new home near Lake Hollingsworth and Ring got busy working at his family’s roofing company while becoming the new GOP leader in Lakeland.
On June 19-20, the couple took their three daughters, Faith, Hope and Grace, to Orlando for the 12-year-old twins’ volleyball tournament.
“There were tens of thousands of people from all over the United States at the tournament,” Ring said. “It was a great time and I was glad to see people starting to act normal and get out of the house. I returned home feeling great.”
He admits that, since he left Washington, he hasn’t been as careful about wearing a mask and he didn’t make the vaccine a priority.
“I’m a firm believer in personal choice,” Ring said. “We’re all free to make our own choices, but we’re not free of the consequences of those choices. I’m not anti-vax, but I’ve never taken the time to get the vaccine. I’m not anti-mask, but I’m not very good about remembering to wear one.”
"I couldn’t catch my breath and was certain I was dying”
He said he began to feel achy on Thursday, June 24, but he didn’t think much of it because he’s normally so healthy. On Friday, he felt worse, but his rapid COVID test came back negative and he thought he had caught a bad cold. Staying home and resting over the weekend didn’t help and on Tuesday, June 29, he tested positive for COVID. He said his condition kept worsening.
“My temperature spiked, I couldn’t breathe and my blood oxygen levels crashed. I went to the ER on the 10th night and was given an IV with an experimental antiviral antibody medicine for high-risk patients (I technically didn’t meet the definition for high-risk patient, but the doctor could see my body wasn’t handling the virus well and he showed me some grace),” Ring wrote on Facebook. “I was then sent home from the ER, only to return later the following evening when my temperature once again spiked, I was shaking uncontrollably, and my blood oxygen levels dropped dangerously low to 78. I couldn’t catch my breath and was certain I was dying.”
He said in a telephone interview that he drove himself to the hospital, hoping he wouldn’t die on the way there, as his wife stayed home with their daughters.
Ring said the emergency room doctor immediately admitted him into the COVID unit. Both his lungs were filled with COVID-19 pneumonia and the virus had thickened his blood, making him susceptible to clots in his heart, lungs, and legs, “which could ultimately prove fatal.” He said they gave him steroids for his lungs, a breathing treatment, shots in his stomach to thin his blood, and “a cocktail of medications to fight the infection in my lungs.”
He said no one would touch him in any kind of comforting way and, understandably, everyone wore biohazard suits. Ring described a hospital ward filled with patients like himself — perilously close to dying.
“The nights were filled with the sounds of people coughing uncontrollably and crying. Everyone was alone and desperate for help,” Ring said. “I remember looking out my window with the view of Lakeland Hills Boulevard, watching (Lakeland Police) cars pass and remembering how I used to be one of them. I cried and cried as I began to accept that I probably wasn’t going to make it out of the hospital alive. Everyday had just been more bad news and my symptoms kept getting worse.”
As a soldier has done tours in and taken multiple trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the holiday weekend, he found himself praying by the window, crying. And that's when a patient care assistant named Charles came into the room and saw him.
“He walked up to me, grabbed my hand (the first physical touch I had felt in a long while) and began to pray for comfort, peace and healing over me. After he finished praying, he grabbed me by my shoulders and said, ‘Look at me, James — we’re brothers in Christ - aren’t we?’ I said yes and he said, ‘You’re going to be okay - you have to believe that,’” Ring recalled Tuesday. “He literally gave me hope and that’s when things started turning around for me. I was released a couple nights later and now I’m finally home recovering. I’m still not out of the woods, but I’m home and that’s progress. Praise God!”
Ring said in a text message that Charles will always be a hero to him.
"This pandemic is not over"
Ring doesn't know if he had the delta variant of COVID-19, saying the hospital hasn't told him. He has a warning for those who think COVID is fake or like a cold or the flu.
"I contracted the virus and unknowingly passed it to some of the people I love the most,” declining to say publicly who that is. He added that they are all doing ok. “I shared my story to say this - this pandemic is not over. Please take it seriously and remember to wear a mask. Even if you think they’re silly, it’s better than sitting all alone in a COVID unit wishing you had.”
Wearing a mask and getting a vaccine are personal choices, he said but they’re ones he hopes everyone decides to make.
“Those decisions could affect the people you love the most,” Ring said. “I didn’t and I almost paid for it with my life.”
Last edited:
damn i didnt expect the ending. shyt is type sad tbh
covid, boy...seems like that mf be pulling up on everybody that talk shyt
these posts are SAD breh. i feel sorry for these people
I bet you watch Titanic and hoped for the best
nah i was about to laugh, i thought it was gon be like i got covid, the end HAHA. wasnt ready for the obituaryI bet you watch Titanic and hoped for the best
Kyle C. Barker
Migos VERZUZ Mahalia Jackson
Her dad is also hospitalized
She won't even be able to live with the guilt of that
No guilt. She dead than a motherfukker. That’s better
$cam-U-Well_Jack$on
Superstar
Her dad is also hospitalized
She won't even be able to live with the guilt of that
She's dead.
Kyle C. Barker
Migos VERZUZ Mahalia Jackson
I'm on my
shytI wanted her to hold on just long enough to see her pops die before she kicked the bucket too
respect the shooter