Chris McCarthy Returns to Share Details of His COVID-19 Battle

For the past few months, listeners have been asking why Chris McCarthy had been missing from the WBSM airwaves. Today, he made his return to share the story of his horrific battle with COVID-19 – a battle he almost lost on more than one occasion.

Chris appeared on The Barry Richard Show this afternoon, sounding a little different than the last time we heard his voice because of the time he spent on a ventilator while at St. Luke's Hospital. Chris was calling from his room at the rehabilitation facility at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River.

He told us about how he first began to feel sick back in early March, but thought he could just fight his way through it, thinking it was nothing more than a bad cold. He credited his friend Natalie with saving his life by forcing him to get a COVID-19 test and eventually calling paramedics to come and bring him to the hospital, because as Chris said directly, "I wasn't going to go."

From there, Chris's health went downhill very quickly. He described having to be covered in cooling blanket as his body temperature became so high the doctors worried he was going to "cook" his organs, as Chris put it. He also described the harrowing ordeal of having warm, dry air forced into his lungs because his oxygen levels were so low, having to be restrained to keep him from tearing out his tubes. He talked about having multiple strokes and a heart attack while trying to fight against the ravages of the coronavirus.

Chris thanked all of those who prayed for him, including each and every one of the WBSM listeners, and told us he was "lucky" to still be alive, because, as he said, he was ready to give up on multiple occasions but credited God, his family and his friends, as well as the St. Luke's medical team, with helping him pull through.

Listen to Chris describe his fight here: