London man urges vaccination after 'heartache' of near-death COVID-19 battle

After fighting an uphill battle with COVID-19 during five weeks in hospital, Martin Taylor is urging everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated to do so as soon as possible.  

"I thought, 'Follow the rules and nothing will happen.' I was not up in the air [about getting vaccinated], but I was just putting it off, and I had it in my head where I probably won't get it as long as I follow the rules," Taylor, 47, told CBC London Morning on Tuesday. "It can lead to so much. If I had the shot, this wouldn't have happened." 

In May, Taylor, a maintenance technician by trade, was working in his backyard when he fell off a ladder and was seriously injured. He felt shortness of breath, but didn't think much of it. After being admitted to the hospital, he learned his spleen was ruptured and it needed to be removed. 

During his recovery, Taylor tested positive for COVID-19. He was told he'd be in the hospital for a couple days after the surgery, but that turned into five weeks and a near-death experience. 

In Ontario alone on Tuesday, 466 new COVID-19 cases were reported. Of the 315 in hospital with a known vaccination status, 235 were unvaccinated.

Some 94 per cent of those in the intensive-care unit were either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, according to provincial data. 

During his time in hospital, Taylor fell ill with pneumonia and doctors had to do a tracheostomy — surgically creating an opening through the neck and into his windpipe. He was slowly starting to breathe on his own until one night, his oxygen levels dropped and he was put into a medically induced coma.