LEROY, AL (WKRG-TV) – “It felt like I had pneumonia, bronchitis and the flu at the same time, just like that. I thank God for my wife. I thank god for my wife. If it hadn’t been for her, I would have been gone. I am telling y’all I would have been gone.”

In a tearful Facebook Live post, 35-year-old Joshua McConico of Washington County warns his family and friends to take the coronavirus seriously. He was diagnosed in March and says he lost thirty pounds, couldn’t breathe, was in pain, and felt like he was going to die. He was diagnosed March 20th, five days after he received a COVID-19 test at the Mobile Infirmary. He spent an entire week in complete misery, isolated from his three young children at home. He says he was the first Coronavirus case to be reported in Washington County.

“My one-year-old was crying because we wouldn’t let him in the room. My wife picked him up and he looked at me and waved. He wanted to be with his daddy. My 9-year-old looked at mama and said, ‘Dad is sick. Dad is really sick.’”

In the Facebook live video, through his tears, McConico recounts seeing hallucinations of his deceased father, and says he would not have made it without his wife. He urges people to please stay home.

“You are looking at someone who beat this Corona, who survived, because people are dying ya’ll. It’s serious. People have died. I am here to tell you, I survived.”

McConico has been cleared to return to work. He said his wife and kids have been tested, and so far they are negative and not showing any symptoms.

“It wasn’t nobody but God. Not mama, not the doctors. It was God that got me through this.”