Woman’s COVID Coma Treated With Controversial Drug: ‘Viagra’ Definitely ‘Saved Me’

A 37-year-old, Gainsborough, U.K. woman has the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra to thank for saving her life after she was in a coma for 28 days with COVID-19.

The woman, Monica Almeida, a fully vaccinated respiratory specialist at the U.K.’s National Health Service in Lincolnshire, tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 31, according to the Lincolnite.

Within four days of testing positive for the virus, Almeida had lost her sense of smell and taste and was coughing up blood, The Sun reported. Her oxygen levels were also dangerously low.

She was admitted to the ICU on Nov. 9 and put into a coma on Nov. 16 as her condition worsened due to dropping oxygen levels, the news outlet reported.

Almeida’s condition was so bad, her parents were told to come to the U.K. from Portugal to say their final goodbyes, the Lincolnite said.

At the time she was admitted to the hospital, she signed on to be a part of an experimental drug study, which included being given a “large dose of Viagra,” just 72 hours before her ventilator was to be turned off, which opened up her airways, the Lincolnite said.

Almeida credits Viagra to saving her life. “It was definitely the Viagra that saved me," she told The Sun. “Within 48 hours, it opened up my airwaves (sic), and my lungs started to respond. I have asthma and my air sacks needed a little help."

Viagra has been suggested as a possible COVID treatment as the drug dilates the blood vessels and opens up the airways. Studies are currently being conducted on the drug’s effectiveness to increase oxygen levels in the blood.

Almeida emerged from her coma on Dec. 14, according to the Lincolnite. She has made enough of a recovery that she was able to return home in time for Christmas, The Sun said.

“It was my little Christmas miracle,” she told The Sun. “I could have been gone at just 37 years old, but I suppose I was a bit of a monkey and kept on fighting.”

Almedia, a mother of two, is recovering at home and has urged others to get their COVID vaccine, posting a video from her hospital bed to show the importance of getting vaccinated.

“I never expected at 37 years of age to get as ill as I did,” she told The Sun. “I never thought this would happen to me, and I want people to take it more seriously.”