INDIANAPOLIS — After battling the deadly virus, some COVID-19 patients have reported lingering health issues.
Back in April, 30-year-old CJ Fields just thought he had a sinus infection. “The whole process, I never thought I had it with my age,” he said. “I never had any underlying health issues nothing.”
Then came the high fever and shortness of breath to the point he needed to go to the hospital. “Just not knowing what was going to happen because basically I was just gasping for air at that point,” said Fields.
It turned out to be the coronavirus. He was put on a ventilator for 18-days and an ECMO machine because his lungs weren’t recovering. After spending about a month in the hospital, he recovered from COVID-19.
But in the days to follow, it was a struggle. “I remember waking up and they actually came to help me use the restroom I couldn’t even walk,” Fields said. “I’m 30 years old.”
Fields had to regain strength in his legs, and now, as a side-effect from the virus, according to his doctor, he’s been diagnosed with tachycardia. “Where my heart rate stays over 100,” describes Fields. “That’s just even sitting down, my heart rate just goes to 130 and I’m not even doing anything. So that’s a weird feeling. And then I also have high blood pressure now due to COVID.”
Other COVID-19 patients have reported similar lingering health issues like difficulty sleeping, breathing, fatigue, body pain and cognitive problems, months after recovery.
“My mind is like, why me?” He asks. “Why at my age and why all of a sudden this thing attacks me the way it did and and when even older people with issues don’t have it as bad? It just blows my mind because what happens if I get it again? Am I going to go down the same road? No one can answer that right now so it’s just a scary situation," said Fields.
“People thinking that the mask is all government issued, I don’t really feel like it is,” said Fields. “I just feel like it’s their best way of trying to help us understand this virus because they can’t even give me an answer as to why it hit me the way it did or why someone else. I just wish people would take their precautions and know that this is real.”
