NORFOLK, Va. – Three days a week and for three and a half hours a day, Danie Taylor can be found at a clinic, hooked up to a machine for dialysis. It’s just one of the consequences of COVID-19.
News 3 reporter Antoinette DelBel first met Taylor in Maywhen taking just a few steps would leave her breathless. It was only about four weeks ago when she said she began feeling better after starting dialysis to help with her breathing.
“I feel great,” Taylor said after her dialysis session. “I don’t feel tired….My kids and friends be like, ‘You not tired. You don’t go to sleep.' I feel great.”
The 59-year-old has come a long way.
“I don’t have a slow walk anymore,” said Taylor. “I can walk fast. I can walk further. Previously, I didn’t do a lot of walking because it was so painful when I would get out of breath.”
Diagnosed with COVID-19 in November 2020, before the vaccine was available, Taylor said her life drastically changed. Today, she continues to suffer from long COVID, a condition where people infected with coronavirus have symptoms that last three months or longer.
It’s estimated nearly one in five people who’ve been infected, have "long COVID."
For Taylor, the fatigue, brain fog and shortness of breath over the last two years were debilitating.
“I sit and think back when it first came out, I saw this one lady breathing really hard and they had her in the emergency room,” Taylor said wiping away tears. “I said, ‘It cannot be that bad,’ until I experienced it. It is that bad because I couldn’t walk 10 feet without feeling like I was about to die.”
A new CDC study found from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2022, there were 3,544 reported deaths related to long COVID.
Taylor said the illness has left her with end-stage kidney failure and chest pain, and she’ll be on dialysis for the rest of her life. Still, she considers herself lucky and says she leans on her faith and family to keep fighting and moving forward.
“I look at it like this, I could be dead,” she said. “COVID could have killed me. If I had to choose between death and…dialysis, I’m going to pick dialysis.”
Scientists are continuing to research how to diagnose and treat long COVID. Right now, the condition can’t be diagnosed through a blood test, CAT scan or physical exam.
