Demir Kolic: "This is the worst thing I've experienced in my life."

Each of these deaths means a family and friends bereft of their loved one. Demir Kolic is one of those, losing his father and his grandmother to Covid within weeks of each other. He wanted to tell us his story, to open people's eyes, as he says.

His father was only 45, an athletic man with no history of illness, when Covid took him. He died on 5 April 2021. Demir has visited his grave every week since. "All the nice moments I had with him come back. When I come here, I feel that I am with him", the 22 year old says. He experienced Covid from its darkest side. Just a few weeks before his father's death, he also lost his grandmother to the disease.

"I still haven't fully processed it. You don't have time to prepare for death."

It all started in February last year. His father caught the virus along with the rest of the family. After initially harmless symptoms like a headache and cough, his situation quickly deteriorates. He gasps for air. He is taken to hospital, which marks the beginning of weeks of uncertainty. Twice he is put in an artificial coma. During the second of these, he is transferred to Cologne and put on an ECMO machine.

"That was the worst thing I experienced in my life. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. You go to hospital and you see your father on a respirator. And this involves the entire body. When you are "pumped" full of oxygen, it is not a pleasant experience - neither to watch or to listen to."

Even though his father could no longer reply, Demir kept talking to him. 

"I told him not to worry, I will look after my family, I am here for my family. And that I love him, that he's my biggest idol and I would do anything to save him, but it isn't working. And I saw his reaction, he teared up. I will never forget that in my life."

In the midst of this harrowing experience, his grandmother died of the virus. Demir and his family barely had time to grieve for her. His father died three weeks later. A difficult time for Demir and his younger siblings. "Those are scars that will stay for ever", he says.

Scars that have not healed a year on. Only now he's slowly beginning to process what has happened. And it needs time. A lot of time.