To the Editor:

Christmas Eve will be nine months since I was on put on a ventilator due to COVID-19. I went from being healthy and not in any risk category to weeks of not being able to walk unaided and many more months until full recovery. As I watch the rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations, I just want to remind folks that this thing is still serious. It is hard because we all have a bit of cabin fever... but trust me, that is way better than COVID fever.

I didn’t die. I made a full recovery. But I was a hair’s breadth away from leaving my wife a widow and my kids fatherless. That weighs on me every single day.

Please take precautions this holiday season so you can be with your loved ones for many seasons to come... even if it means missing them this year.

Dr Neil Chaudhary

Merlins Lane, Newtown December 11, 2020