COVID-19 has changed their lives

November 20, 2020 Health

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As the second wave of COVID-19 strikes, hundreds of Quebecs continue to suffer for months after being infected with the virus, some marked with physical or psychological consequences.

“I defeated the coronavirus, but at what a price! »Launches Jacques Goupil after 40 days in a coma and a loss of 70 pounds.

This 68-year-old bus driver is among fifteen survivors who generously agreed to confide in the magazine on the traces that the virus has left on their bodies and in their minds.

Tiredness, difficulty concentrating, and heart or lung problems are the majority of people between the ages of 23 and 72 with the long form of the disease we have spoken with.

But many pay a higher price. Among them, a 59-year-old mechanic who has to deal with “an uneven foot” and a paralyzed part of his face.

“I still have a little voice in my head that says: will everything go back to normal? »Breathe Jean-François Gagnon.

Georges Aguiar, 47, already knows he will never get back to full use of his hand. Young retired from education, François Quenot was finally able to walk again four months after being infected. Some of his muscle mass is “lost forever” after 68 days of intensive therapy.

For others, it is the anguish of the unknown.

“I’d like to say a few words, but it doesn’t come out like it used to. It destabilizes me enormously, “says Marie-Isabelle Marchand. At 53, she is learning again to talk to a speech therapist, who uses an answering machine message to help her find her voice.

At 23 and struggling with brain inflammation, Camille Cusson doesn’t know when she will be able to resume her nursing career. Sandra Leblond is also concerned about persistent cognitive problems.

“I fear it will remain permanent; It’s been months and it’s not getting better, ”says the 32-year-old mother.

How will this type of side effect evolve?

“There are a number of unknowns. If a side effect takes five years to appear, for example, it cannot be accelerated, “says Dr.^r Francois Marquis.

No wonder Caroline Marceau compares this disease to “a lottery”.

“It is true that people will do well. But you don’t know how you will react ”, explains the 41-year-old mother, who still suffers from palpitations after eight months.

“I am in the statistics of the recovered, but there are also borrowers, and there are many in titi”, adds Violaine Cousineau, 46 and a mother of two children, who can no longer express herself without a very small more breath.

The long form of COVID-19 “is not a figment of the imagination, cardiologist Eric Sabbah insists. We see people unable to resume their lives even after several weeks,” he says.

Recent articles from Journal of the American Medical Association and you British Medical Journal estimates that nearly 10% of patients experience symptoms months after being infected.