This B.C. man did not get vaccinated before getting COVID-19. He ended up in a coma

Shortly after being admitted to hospital with COVID-19, Dave Garcia made the decision to remove the oxygen tube from his nose for just a couple of minutes to make his way from the bed to the bathroom.

Moments after removing the tube, Garcia found himself coughing uncontrollably and his limbs going weak as he gasped for air. He scrambled to yank the emergency cord, calling medical staff to his aid.

"Your thoughts [are] racing through your head, 'This can't be happening,'" saidGarcia.

The 39-year-old Merritt, B.C., resident spent 23 days inhospital with COVID-19 after choosing not to get vaccinated.

Garcia saidhis story serves as a reminder of what can happen to unvaccinatedpeople who contract the disease.

LISTEN | Dave Garcia shares his story with CBC'sDaybreak Kamloops:

As B.C. fights its fourth wave of the pandemic, unvaccinated people are 17 times more likely to end up in hospital after contracting COVID-19 than their fully vaccinated counterparts, according to data released bythe Ministry of Health.

Garcia is now urging others to protect themselves and get vaccinated.

"I wouldn't say I'm an anti-vaxxer by any means, but Iwas justwaitingto see what was going on," saidGarcia.

He didn'tfeel there was an immediate need to get the vaccine and wanted to wait and see iflonger-term side effects emerged among those who had been vaccinated.

On May 20, Garcia tested positive for COVID-19 after some mild coughing, fatigue and aches and pains. He saidhe mistakenly thought his experience with the disease would be abreeze.

But byMay 23, his cough had progressed into coughing attacks that left him breathless.

"This of course was problematic, but I was still very optimistic that it would blow over anaiveness that I recognize now," Garcia said in a written responseprovided to CBC News following the interview.

After coughing up blood, Garcia called 811, the provincial nurses' line, and was told togo to the closestemergency room.

"I thought they would give mebreathing exercises to do at home, but never thought that I would be in the hospital for the next 23 days," saidGarcia.

After he was admitted, Garcia's health continued to declineand he was placed on oxygen.

"It was quite a shock knowing that the oxygen was going to be my lifeline," saidGarcia.

Eventually, he went into respiratory distressand stopped breathing.

Garcia was transferred on May 26 from the Nicola Valley Hospital inMerrittto Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, where he was admitted to the COVID-19 intensive care unit. He was put intoa medically induced coma for six daysas medical staff worked to stabilize him.

Garcia was eventually discharged on June 15. Hecontinues to make progress at home, alongside his 12-year-old son, Maddox Garcia, who had mild symptoms but was never tested.

After being discharged, Garcia saidhe calledhis family doctor to ask about getting both himself and Maddox vaccinated.Garcia and his sonhave since received their first doses.

Vaccine hesitancy continues to be an issue in B.C. months after vaccines were introduced. Provincial figures releasedThursday show 75.6per cent of residents12 and older in B.C. are now fully vaccinated.

Some of the hesitancycomes from fears about side effects, with some people believing they're not vulnerable to COVID-19 and others distrusting the government's messaging.