Study Shines Light On ‘Long Haulers’ Fighting Long-Term Side Effects After Being Diagnosed With COVID-19

Study Shines Light On ‘Long Haulers’ Fighting Long-Term Side Effects After Being Diagnosed With COVID-19

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — While some coronavirus survivors recover within a few weeks, some patients find themselves in a battle that seemingly has no end.

Forty-three-year-old Rachael Sunshine, of Coxsackie, New York, is going through a dark time.

She recorded a video while in an upstate New York hospital last week, saying, “I wish I wasn’t here. This really sucks.”

She’s not battling COVID-19, but she’s fighting long-term side effects from the virus that she had back in April.

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“I have COVID bumps on and off, shortness of breath, fatigue, hair loss, brain fog, incredible pain, a cough that just never goes away,” Sunshine told CBS2’s Cory James.

Those symptoms are what thousands across the country are also facing.

That includes actress Alyssa Milano, who says she has been living with lingering symptoms for four months.

View this post on Instagram

This was me on April 2nd after being sick for 2 weeks. I had never been this kind of sick. Everything hurt. Loss of smell. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t keep food in me. I lost 9 pounds in 2 weeks. I was confused. Low grade fever. And the headaches were horrible. I basically had every Covid symptom. At the very end of march I took two covid19 tests and both were negative. I also took a covid antibody test (the finger prick test) after I was feeling a bit better. NEGATIVE. After living the last 4 months with lingering symptoms like, vertigo, stomach abnormalities, irregular periods, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, zero short term memory, and general malaise, I went and got an antibody test from a blood draw (not the finger prick) from a lab. I am POSITIVE for covid antibodies. I had Covid19. I just want you to be aware that our testing system is flawed and we don’t know the real numbers. I also want you to know, this illness is not a hoax. I thought I was dying. It felt like I was dying. I will be donating my plasma with hopes that I might save a life. Please take care of yourselves. Please wash your hands and wear a mask and social distance. I don’t want anyone to feel the way I felt. Be well. I love you all (well, maybe not the trolls. Just the kind people.)

A post shared by Alyssa Milano (@milano_alyssa) on Aug 5, 2020 at 12:42pm PDT

Medical experts are calling people with this problem “long haulers,” and Hell’s Kitchen resident Judy Dodd is one of them.

“It’s the fatigue. I just still get very fatigued,” she said.

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Dr. Natalie Lambert at Indiana University School of Medicine helped conduct a study on long haulers and interviewed more than 1,500 people speaking out on a Facebook group called “Survivor Corps.”

Among the 98 symptoms detailed in the study, like cough, fever and body aches, Lambert describes the one that constantly came up.

“Difficulty concentrating and memory problems, and you can imagine how that affects their ability to work or function,” she said.

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CBS2’s Dr. Max Gomez says people who are long haulers can still test negative.

“It doesn’t mean that the virus is still there, but it has done damage to your system,” he said. “And that’s what’s taking a long time for you to get over.”

The CDC reports a third of patients do not return to usual health for at least three weeks after diagnosis.

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August 07, 2020 at 09:16AM