A man who spent 4 months in hospital with COVID-19 and ended up with a double-lung transplant said he regrets not getting the vaccine

• Josh Garza spent four months in hospital with coronavirus, and needed a double lung transplant.
• He told CNN that he regretted not getting a vaccine for the virus.
• "If could do it all over again, I'd get it. No doubt. What I went through is probably the worst I've ever seen."

A man who spent four months battling coronavirus in hospital and almost died from the virus said he regretted not getting a coronavirus vaccine.

Josh Garza, 43, told CNN that he didn't get a vaccine because he thought he could avoid getting infected by following health measures, and because he was worried about its safety.

"I didn't want to be the guinea pig," he told CNN. "I was just opposed to it."

But he was infected, and spent four months at the Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas this year before getting a double-lung transplant, CNN reported.

He said he wishes he had been vaccinated: "If could do it all over again, I'd get it. No doubt. What I went through is probably the worst I've ever seen."

Garza told CNN that he ended up days away from dying, but got the transplant in April.

Garza urged other people to get the vaccine.

"Think about your family. Because what I went through, I had to put my family through, also," he said."I wish people would at least reconsider, or at least listen to what we went through, and hopefully you never have to go through that - ever."

CNN noted that Garza has diabetes and high blood pressure, conditions that make him particularly vulnerable to the virus and that gave him earlier access to the vaccine.