A University of Temple student says she suffered a life-threatening heart condition a few weeks after recovering from a mild case of Covid-19.
In a Facebook post on December 8, Madie Neville writes that she returned to her family home for the Thanksgiving holiday following a diagnosis of Covid-19 at the end of October.
“I felt completely normal and managed to leave my COVID experience behind,” Neville wrote. “After all, I am a twenty-year-old girl in good health. I am the subgroup of the population that should be best equipped to cope with COVID.”
Neville, who lives in Philadelphia and is now 21, said she gave negative results before returning home. But soon after, she was hit by a second wave of symptoms.
That’s right, you heard me right, I had congestive heart failure at the age of 20. I will say one more time for the effect: congestive heart failure, age 20.
“I experienced such intense chest pain, shortness of breath and a number of other horrible symptoms that suddenly appeared as a complete surprise,” she wrote.
In her post, Neville said she was eventually transported to a hospital in Philadelphia, where she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
“I have been hospitalized for the last nine days, where I have struggled daily to perform even the weakest tasks, such as going to the bathroom and taking a shower on my own, brushing my teeth and hair, or even to walk 10 steps “, she wrote.
In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Neville said the diagnosis he received from doctors was myocarditis, a swelling of the heart muscle that was linked to Covid-19.
Recently, doctors have raised the question of whether athletes should be asked to perform additional screenings before returning to play after recovering from the disease due to the risk of myocarditis.
Neville did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
She wrote that she hoped her story could serve as a “reality check” for some of her colleagues who “take their health for granted.”
“I know I did it,” Neville wrote. “I thought my youth and health would allow me to go through any run I had with the relatively unharmed virus.”
“However, as someone who was on the bottom, I wish I had chosen inconveniences to endanger my health. I would have liked to be more careful in my social interactions before contracting COVID, to save myself, my family and my friends from the pain of uncertainty about whether or not this disease will kill me. “
“This has been my reality this week and you can be sure I just wouldn’t care less what restaurants are open … I’m grateful I’m alive at home with my family,” Neville wrote.
