Wilton's Coronavirus 'Patient One' Recovering At Home

WILTON, CT — Chris Tillet, the Wilton man who was Patient One for the new coronavirus in Connecticut, is back home from Danbury Hospital and gave an interview on NBC's "Today" show Friday describing his experience.

"I felt like a truck hit me," Tillet told co-hosts Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander, adding he was flying home from San Francisco from a conference when he started to feel ill.

The next day, he said he was short of breath and his joints were tired. Then he got a 102-degree fever.

"I had to go to the doctor at that point, I knew something was wrong," he said.

The doctor suspected Tillet had been slammed by the flu and sent him home. When the fever continued into Wednesday, his wife Elizabeth, a nurse, knew something was amiss.

"It's rare for an adult to have a fever for multiple days," Tillet said. "My wife called, got me a chest X-ray, and sure enough, I had pneumonia."

Tillet was admitted to Danbury Hospital, where staff still treated him for a bad case of the flu, he said.

"By Friday, I had descended into chaos," he told the "Today" show hosts.

Tillett, 45, spent 10 days in a medically induced coma. His wife and 5-month-old twins Luke and John remained at home in isolation.

"He was in a coma in the ICU, and I couldn't be there, to do what I know how to do, advocating for him, and really following his plan of care," Elizabeth Tillet said. "I was home for two weeks with two babies and I couldn't let anyone in the house. There was fear for his life but there was also fear, that I could not be there for him. Every day was just very scary."

Now home with the wife and kids, Connecticut's Patient One says he is feeling much better and improving every day: "I'm feeling great, and grateful to be alive."

Tillet had nothing but thanks and kind words for the doctors and nurses at Danbury Hospital. He urged health care workers and first responders to take care of themselves.

"It's going to get worse before it gets better, just hang in there," he said.