“They told my kids the second time I was on a ventilator they should get my family together because I probably wasn’t going to make it,” Donahue, a Type 2 diabetic, told the news outlet. “It’s a really serious thing and I’m lucky to be here.”

Donahue, who has been battling the rare fungus since March, said how he contracted the fungus remains a mystery, as it’s typically found in moist soil and decomposing wood and leaves. He said he doesn’t work with soil and hadn’t been down to his dock because of snow. But their dog, who was diagnosed with the fungal infection in 2018, had been through the woods and down to the water before he started with a hacking cough that progressed to vomiting and convulsing, according to the news outlet.

Symptoms of blastomycosis usually appear between three weeks and three months after a person has breathed in the fungal spores, but not everyone who is exposed will get sick. Those who do fall ill may experience fever, cough, night sweats, muscle aches, weight loss, chest pain and fatigue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

For Donahue, his medical issues also started with a severe cough that eventually progressed to vomiting. After five days of antibiotics didn’t help relieve what doctors reportedly thought was pneumonia, one of his sons called an ambulance.

At Essential Health in Fargo, N.D., a specialist diagnosed him with blastomycosis.

“I literally was in the same position in my hospital bed for almost three months,” he told Duluth News Tribune. “My back still hurts. I lost 40 pounds. I used to weigh 175 and have pretty good size arm muscles. I use a walker and a cane, look like a twig and have almost no muscle tone. I turned 50 in the hospital.”

He was eventually released from the hospital in July, and his twin sons moved home to help care for him, according to the news outlet. In addition to physical therapy, he was given an antifungal drug to take for the next year.

The unnamed accuser claimed that another woman groped her while she was working the Republican Party of Minnesota booth at the event. According to Fox 9, the suspect left the booth after the alleged assault occurred around 8:50 Friday night.

State Fair police spokeswoman Brooke Blakey told the Star Tribune newspaper the alleged victim was “groped … over the clothes” but wouldn’t identify which body part was involved. The 40-year-old volunteer alleged that she was groped twice, according to ABC 5.

Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Jennifer Carnahan tweeted late Friday: “Violence is never the answer. To the Democrats that sexually assaulted one of our volunteers today at thee @mngop  booth, and the men that harassed the female staff and I at the end of the night-SHAME ON YOU. The MN State Fair is supposed to be a place of fun and celebration.”

“There is no place for violence in our society, let alone at one’s place of employment, and the Republican Party of Minnesota has a zero-tolerance policy for such behavior,” Carnahan said in a statement to the Star Tribune.

“We can only hope that this is not indicative of what our Republican volunteers, candidates, activists and leaders will face as we head into the 2020 elections,” Carnahan told Fox 9. ” “We are supposed to be salt of the earth, genuine folk here in Minnesota.”

The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party had no immediate comment on Carnahan’s claims.