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Top left: Ashley Pugliese after contracting COVID in February 2020.
Below and right: Pugliese alone and with her family, February 2021. When Ashley Pugliese fell ill in February 2020, her husband drove her to two emergency rooms. The first one looked like a warzone, with people lying on the floor coughing, says Pugliese, an employee assistance professional and mother of two from Fishkill. They fled. The second ER was a bit less crowded, and a TV news channel showed footage of hospitals being built in coronavirus-stricken China. Do you think that is going to end up here? she asked her husband. Turns out, the virus had already arrived and was taking up residence in her own body. At the time, there were no tests in the US for COVID-19, and the ER doctor surmised that she had some sort of stomach bug. Sent home to rest, she was never hospitalized or intubated. But she went on to suffer a different kind of grim fate. She did not get better.
Long-haulers share experiences with COVID-19 symptoms long after diagnosis
News 12 Staff
Updated on:Mar 16, 2021, 11:28pm EDT
Many people who have had COVID-19 are still experiencing symptoms long after their diagnosis.
Ashley Pugliese, of Fishkill, is what doctors refer to as a long-hauler.
She was infected with COVID-19 last March. She suffered inflammation, brain fog and always felt anxious.
Pugliese says she is still not herself one year later and feels like she aged overnight.
She lost hair - some turned white - and has had to relearn how to walk, how to hold things and sometimes suddenly becomes drenched in sweat.