COVID-19 is proving to be quite the mystery. Doctors and patients are discovering that symptoms of the infection — some that weren’t even there initially — can affect patients for several months after the patients have recovered. These patients are called COVID-19 “long-haulers,” and they are suffering from what doctors have deemed “Post-Covid 19 Syndrome.”
Kevin Rathel is one such patient. He contracted the novel coronoavirus back in April, and had to be hospitalized and placed into a coma. It’s been several months, and Rathel is still complaining of symptoms. He reports memory loss, brain fog, extreme fatigue, and shortness of breath, ailments that many long-haulers also share. There are an estimated 2 million COVID-19 long-haulers suffering from “crippling and debilitating symptoms” even though they are long over the virus.
Michelle Sogge is another patient who went from being active and healthy to tired, weak, short of breath, and confused. She can no longer even live on her own. “The symptoms were so debilitating,” she said. “I couldn’t get up. I couldn’t shower.”
Sogge is a patient at UC David Health Post-COVID-19 Clinic. Clinics like these are appearing all over the U.S., all designed to accept and treat long-haulers. Patients who visit the clinic go through an extensive process and are seen by doctors who would be most appropriate to their ailments. Nothing is cut and dry, as there is still so much the medical community does not know about the after-effects of the virus.
Epidemiologist Dr. Margot Gage is a COVID long-hauler herself. She has dealt with skin rashes, ear-ringing, and asthma since recovering from the virus. She also has headaches that she says are even stronger than migraines, often leaving her bed-ridden. Dr. Gage has a team of doctors working to treat her particular ailments, and as she says, the treatment plan is very individualized.
Long-haulers like Sogge and Gage, among so many others, really hope people realize the potential severity of this virus. “A lot of people do survive,” said Dr. Gage. “But there are also a host of people who survive but are no longer the same.”
Dr. Virginia Witt, who works at an outpatient post-COVID clinic in New Jersey, stresses the significance of clinics like hers because of how severe the post-covid medical issues can be. Witt describes seeing patients with “obvious lung damage, scarring . . . some of them even need[ing] lung transplants for the long haul.” Some are even struggling with heart issues or have needed to go on dialysis.
It’s true that symptoms like brain fog and chronic fatigue are the most common post-covid ailments, but there are also more serious issues that could lead to life-threatening problems. For those who have non-threatening post-covid syndrome, oftentimes their lives have still been “radically changed.” Doctors and their patients hope to spread awareness that while COVID-19 itself can be mild, it still doesn’t exempt anyone from the unpredictable and potentially severe effects that can last for months afterwards.