Tony Boselli spent five days in hospital as COVID-19 “buried me”

[Jaxson De Ville]

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Tony Boselli is counting his blessings after making it through the worst of the coronavirus.

The former Jaguars offensive lineman made his first comments about his recovery from COVID-19, which sent him to the Mayo Clinic for five days. While Boselli’s wife, Angie, also tested positive, her symptoms were far less severe.

She was never hospitalized and has fully recovered.

Boselli, 47, saw his condition deteriorate so fast that he wondered if he would pull through. He ended up in ICU, hooked up to IVs and needing oxygen.

Doctors released him Monday.

“For whatever reason, [COVID-19] buried me and didn’t do much to her,” Boselli told Gene Frenette of jacksonville.com. “She’s obviously much tougher than I am. She had 7-10 days where she didn’t feel like herself, but her symptoms were mild.”

Boselli continues to get stronger by the day, he said.

“I can still feel my lungs aren’t all the way back,” Boselli said. “I have no fever. The cough is under control. I get tired quicker, but I’m starting to answer emails.”

Boselli developed initial symptoms on March 16 after playing golf the previous weekend at Sawgrass Country Club. He got progressively worse and found out March 20 he had tested positive.

By March 25, Boselli was in the Mayo Clinic fighting for his life.

“I guess the thought was there’s no way this is how the story is supposed to end here,” Boselli said. “This is nuts. I never felt like, ‘poor me, or why me?’ You get sick, it happens. But the fact I was in the hospital with the coronavirus and crazy thoughts were going through my mind, like ‘I can’t believe this is going on.’

“The worst was my second day in ICU when they were upping my oxygen levels. That was probably the lowest, scariest moment. I had no family around me. I can’t remember exactly what the doctor said, something about the machine needing to go to another level for more oxygen if that didn’t work. Whatever drugs they were giving me, in combination with the oxygen, it got me to where I needed to be. I never had to find out what that next level was.”

Boselli is grateful to live to tell about it while serving as a reminder to take the warnings and protective measures seriously.