she admits she is struggling to breathe after finding covid in her daughter's daybed and using a ventilator for five days
A father whose entire family caught the Delta variant of Covid-19 from a worker at his five-year-old's daycare centre says his wife is 'skeletal' after losing 7kg while strapped to a ventilator for almost a week in ICU.
Mother-of-two Gig had only just celebrated her 40th birthday when she caught the virus from her daughter Kaylin, who contracted it from her pre-school in Toongabbie in Sydney's north-west in mid-August.
Her husband Jason, 47, thinks she already had Covid when she went to get her first Pfizer shot, which means the vaccine didn't have a chance to strengthen her immune system before she was exposed.
Days later, her condition deteriorated to the point where her lungs weren't functioning and the oxygen in her blood was so limited that doctors almost intubated her.
She spent five days in intensive care and a further nine in the Covid-19 ward at Westmead Hospital but, on Monday, Gig was finally sent home - a shell of her former self at about 50kg with only 80 per cent lung capacity.
Gig caught covid from her five-year-old daughter Kaylin. Pictured, left to right: Kaylin, Gig, Jayda and Jason
Gig sent her husband Jason some photos from ICU but the pair barely had a chance to speak while she was in hospital
'She hasn't eaten for two weeks because she was so sick, and she's so slim,' her husband Jason told Daily Mail Australia, as Gig coughed in the background.
'It's going to take her a few months to recover her lung capacity, and you can see the tendons in her neck.'
Until her lungs heal, she will have to rely on Jason - an out-of-work logistics contractor - to take care of her and their young girls.
The situation unfolded when the whole family tested positive on August 12.
Kaylin, the youngest, had a fever and a runny nose, her seven-year-old sister Jayda had no symptoms at all, and their fully-vaccinated father felt as though he had a 'bad flu'.
'I got my second Pfizer shot when Gig had her first, but the vaccine didn't have time to do anything before I tested positive to Covid a few days later,' Jason said.
Jason said he never thought he would contract Covid, and couldn't believe his wife - who had no underlying health conditions - reacted so badly to the virus
Jason works in logistics and Gig runs a number of massage parlours around Castle Hill, in Sydney's north-west
'I had aches and pains, a headache, and I have asthma so I was really worried, but my wife has no lung problems and no underlying conditions and she was really sick.'
Gig had a fever and muscle aches, but she brushed it off because she thought the pain was associated with her period.
'I went in to check on her at about 9am one morning and she was short of breath,' Jason said.
'I encouraged her to get up and have a shower, and she said "I can't".'
He called an ambulance and Gig was raced to Westmead Hospital where she was placed in intensive care.
'Everyone reacts differently to medications with this virus, so they try them all until you respond to something - luckily her condition did improve and she didn't need to be intubated,' he said.
Both girls, age five and seven, also tested positive to Covid. Jayda didn't have any symptoms and Kaylin had a fever for about two days
Aside from a few ICU photos and video calls, Jason spent most of his time at home in isolation with his girls wondering how his wife was doing.
'There's terrible reception in intensive care and she couldn't really talk, so I didn't even know she was could have been intubated,' he said.
'She went to hospital at about 4am so the girls didn't get a chance to say goodbye - if things turned for the worst, I was worried they'd never see her again.'
Jason said he never thought he would get Covid, let alone his whole family.
When speaking about vaccine sceptics and Covid deniers, he said: 'It's out there, and it's real.'
'I had mild symptoms and that was with the vaccine, so I don't know what would have happened if I didn't have it.'