When News 5 first spoke to Kevin Harris he thought his life was over.

"I was leaning over the side of the bed, throwing up, thinking out loud, 'Oh God, please don't let me die like this,'” said Harris.

Last week Harris learned he contracted COVID-19, but for days he just thought it was a bad flu.

He finally decided he needed medical attention when he said everything just hurt.

"I had body aches for a few days, I had dry mouth, my eyes hurt, fever, crazy sinus headache,” he said.

When he first got to Mercy Health St. Joseph Hospital in Warren, no one knew if he was going to get better, even his doctors.

"Am I going to live? And she shrugged her shoulders, like we don’t know and for two days they did not know,” said Harris.

But Harris says the medial staff tried everything.

"Bags and bags of IV antibiotics, pills I’ve never seen the likes of before,” he said. "They were giving me all kinds of stuff, looked like big old horse pills.”

The 55-year-old is finally out of the ICU.

"I can sit up pretty good now, talk without losing my breath, I’m off oxygen,” said Harris.

And there’s even talks of him being able to leave soon.

"They’re trying to get me ready to go home, but I can’t walk too far without oxygen so they’re trying to get my body strong and my lungs, trying to help build them back up and that come with moving and walking and sitting up,” he said.

But even if Harris does get strong enough, it’s still not clear how him leaving could work.

Harris says he’s so grateful he’s getting healthy and looks forward to a full recovery.

"They want somebody to be there to take care of me but at the same time I’ve got to be in total isolation,” he said.

Harris says he’s so grateful he’s getting healthy and looks forward to a full recovery

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