A Fitness Instagram Influencer from Ukraine who believed COVID-19 did not exist has died after contracting the disease during a trip.
33-year-old Dmitriy Stuzhuk was travelling to Turkey and was taken to the hospital after testing positive for the virus upon his return home.
Stuzhuk, who was a strong advocate of healthy living, told his 1.1 million followers that he had woken up in Turkey with a swollen neck, stomachache and having difficulties in breathing.
“I want to share how I got sick and to strongly warn everyone,” he said. “I was one who thought that Covid does not exist…until I got sick.”
“COVID-19 IS NOT A SHORT-LIVED DISEASE! And it is heavy.”
“The hospital is completely filled with people, some of them being treated in corridors,” Stuzhuk shared.
The social media star was discharged from the hospital eight days later and was allowed to continue treatment at home, rather than to finish his treatment in an overcrowded hospital.
“At home, as they say, the walls heal – my condition is stable,” he wrote.
However, Stuzhuk was rushed back only after a few hours as he was in a “grave condition” and “unconscious”.
His ex-wife, Sofia, told her followers that Stuzhuk had “problems with his cardiovascular system… his heart is not coping.”
“His state is extremely grave. No-one can do anything with this,” she added, “I did everything I could so the father of my three children lives. But nothing depends on me now.”
Stuzhuk died from the virus the next day.
Sofia announced his death on a post, and wrote, “Dima is no longer with us. His heart could not stand.”
“Only warm memories remain, three beautiful kids and valuable experience. God, it is so terrible to realise that he is not with us anymore….”