A scar on Paul Hemsing's neck from where he was intubated when battling COVID-19 (photo courtesy Paul Hemsing)

By Teagan Rasche

‘Don’t ever think it can’t happen to you’: local man still battling long-term effects of COVID-19

Oct 4, 2021 | 4:54 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Paul Hemsing was a healthy 50-year-old who ran a successful Medicine Hat hair salon.

But one day, he collapsed in complete shock.

If his partner Michael hadn’t called an ambulance, he was told he might not have made it, he says.

“Don’t ever think it can’t happen to you,” Hemsing. “We took a lot of precautions because of our industry and following all of the guidelines of the provincial government and we were very careful.”

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Hemsing caught the COVID-19 Delta variant. He had already received his first dose of the vaccine when he became sick.

Once he got to the hospital, he was immediately intubated and stayed that way for weeks.

He doesn’t remember any of it and says it was harder on his family than himself.

“The people that had the worries and the pain and the concerns were my family and Michael and my kids and my parents and everyone that had to spend 39 days wondering whether I would live or die,” Hemsing said.

Today, he’s getting better.

Hemsing has gained back most of the 50 pounds he lost while in hospital, but he’s suffering from long COVID.

“Neuropathy of hands and feet and tongue,” Hemsing said. “Where you can’t feel the inside of your hands and fingers and the soles of your feet. So when you walk you can’t feel where you’re stepping so I’ve tripped quite a few times.”

He’s also experiencing joint pain, fatigue, short-term memory problems and brain fog

Dr. Paul Parks, an emergency room physician at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, says long COVID can last for months or even years.

“We don’t know yet how long they’ll last actually that people suffer from after they recover from the gruelling acute illness,” Parks said. “It’s a constellation of a ton of different symptoms that actually can be very, very debilitating.”

Hemsing can only take three to four clients a day now before his shoulder pain gets too severe.

But through all of this, he has a message he wants to send.

“I highly encourage people to take this very seriously,” Hemsing said. “To seriously look into becoming immunized if you’re not.”