VANCOUVER -- At 32 years old, Zee Rahiman wasn't worried that COVID-19 could put his life in jeopardy – until it did.

Until it did.

"You always think this is not going to happen to me and it happened," he told CTV News.

He became ill in late March.

"It just felt like something hit me. I was feeling feverish. I had a really bad cough, sore throat. And then I started to vomit," he explained.

His condition just kept deteriorating until he ended up in the intensive care unit at Vancouver General Hospital, where a doctor gave him grave news.

"He was about as sick as one could get," said ICU Dr. Mypinder Sekhon

"We had to take the step of sedating him, putting him into a medically-induced coma and putting him on a respirator to keep him alive."

Rahiman had no idea if he would survive.

"That's when I texted my mom and my girlfriend and said they're putting me on the ventilator. I don't know what's going to happen," said Rahiman.

He spent three days on a respirator and about two-and-a-half weeks in ICU.

Rahiman is one of 65 people in a clinical study examining the immune system response of people who became seriously ill with the virus. Blood samples from patients, which would usually take weeks to process, are analyzed within 24 hours at a UBC lab run by Dr. Cheryl Wellington..

"They're getting analyzed each day for different biomarkers of inflammation and those biomarkers of inflammation tell us how active or overactive the immune response is," explained Dr. Ryan Hoiland.

"We're finding that those who have an over-exaggerated immune response are becoming more sick."

Dr. Hoiland says the more that's understood about the virus, the better doctors will know how to treat it.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sekhon says seeing someone as young as Rahiman get sick was a wake-up call.

Speaking more generally, Dr. Sekhon adds, "When this disease started to approach our doorsteps, it was one of the scariest moments of most of our careers. But it was scary because it was a disease that was unseen and unknown."

He says research has allowed doctors to better understand the illness and with that knowledge comes the ability to better treat patients.

Rahiman says he's grateful for the care he received and is getting a little stronger each day.