Devo co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh has a message for people who don’t believe COVID-19 is real.
“It’s really real,” said the 70-year-old, an acclaimed composer for films and television.
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Mothersbaugh recalled how he ended up spending 18 days in the ICU at Cedars-Sinai hospital in June.
He developed symptoms, including a fever of 103, in late May. “A nurse came over the next morning and said, ‘You should be in ICU.’ I said, ‘That’s ridiculous.’ She replied that she’d been a nurse for three decades: ‘You need an ambulance right now.’”
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Mothersbaugh remembered having delusions. “I was convinced for about two weeks that I had been hit by a brick by somebody. I felt blood from being hit,” he said.
The musician added: “If you have anyone that you know who’s in ICU with COVID, contact them and keep them in touch with the outside world, because it’s easy to lose track of where you are and why you are. I had no idea I was on a ventilator for 10 days. Time meant nothing.”
Mothersbaugh said he continues to feel the effects of his COVID-19 battle.
“Before COVID, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m starting to feel about 50 now, and I’m 70.’ When I was in the hospital, I was feeling like I was about 90,” he explained. “And now I’m back to 70, and I’m trying to get back to 50. That’s my goal.”