Boston Police captain recounts his experience battling COVID-19 in South Shore Hospital

BOSTON — A Boston police captain is out of the hospital after a scary experience with COVID-19. He’s happy to be one of the survivors of this virus and is thanking all the nurses and doctors who helped save his life.

“I mean I’ve been a cop for 35 years,” said Capt. John Greland of Boston Police. “I’ve seen and done a lot of things. I’ve never experienced this, this is truly scary.”

Capt. Greland just returned home after spending eight days at South Shore Hospital as he battled COVID-19.

“I was running temperatures [like] 103.9 [degrees],” he said. “I knew I had it. Incredible coughing fits, couldn’t sleep because you’re coughing all the time.”

Capt. Greland still has trouble breathing, but said it’s nothing like the alarming episodes he had in the hospital.

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“It’s 3 o’clock in the morning and I start shivering uncontrollably, I am so cold and I have a couple blankets on,” Capt. Greland recalled. “I can’t stop shivering and then my legs start shooting up in the air. I had no control, the bed’s going back and forth like a scene from the exorcist.”

Capt. Greland said his goal now is to get back to work as soon as he’s better. He plans on retiring from the Boston Police force in August when he turns 65.

“I figured I was going to come in, do my last few months and retire and call it a day,” he said. “And then this came along.”

Doctors told him his lungs took a beating from the virus and he’ll likely need another week or two to fully recover. But Capt. Greland said it’s a good feeling to be out of the hospital.

“As they’re wheeling me out, we go by the nurses’ station and there’s five to six nurses there and they all stand up and they all start clapping,” he said. “It was an incredible feeling, it really was. I almost lost it.”

Capt. Greland says those nurses are the ones who deserve a round of applause.

“They were incredible,” he said. “The nurses, they were fantastic. I cannot speak highly enough about them.”

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