COVID-19 survivor, male nurse shares shocking transformation pictures

A San Francisco nurse who contracted Covid-19 shared pictures of himself showing the impact the virus had on his body.

Mike Schultz, 43, a nurse from San Francisco with no underlying health conditions, weighed about 190 pounds before getting infected by the deadly coronavirus after which he dropped 50 pounds.

Mike Schultz

He shared two images to his 30,000 Instagram followers, one taken about a month before he fell ill, the other snapped at a Boston hospital.

''I wanted to show it can happen to anyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, have pre-existing conditions or not. It can affect you,'' Schultz said.

"I knew what I thought going in [about the coronavirus]. I didn’t think it was as serious as it was until after things started happening,” he said. “I thought I was young enough for it not to affect me, and I know a lot of people think that.''

Schultz, who went to the hospital March 16, also had completely lost track of time.

He contracted coronavirus in March after attending a party on Miami beach that has been linked to several COVID cases. This happened before any social distancing restrictions were in place. 

After being admitted on March 16, he was treated for pneumonia and had acute respiratory distress syndrome and put on ventilator. It took four and a half weeks for him to start breathing on his own again. 

"I didn't even recognize myself," Schultz said about his shocking transformation. "I pretty much cried when I looked in the mirror."

He is now on the road to recovery and planning to get his body back "in healthier ways this time".