Covid-19 ‘long-hauler’ in Oregon shares story of symptoms months after virus
While experts are still learning about ‘long Covid,’ hospitals are beginning to put specialized treatment programs into place.
Posted: Jan 14, 2021 9:26 AM
Updated: Jan 14, 2021 9:34 AM
Posted By: KPTV
PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) A clinical nurse educator at OHSU, Stephanie LaRiviere-Miller, is sharing her story about her COVID-19 journey.
She’s part of about one in ten people who experience symptoms months after the virus. They re called ‘Covid long-haulers.’
Because LaRiviere-Miller believes she had the virus weeks before Oregon even announced its first case, it took months to figure out. Even now that she knows what was consuming her body, 11 months later, she’s still dealing with its effects.
HERMISTON â It took Joe Gutierrez landing in the hospital to make a COVID-19 believer out of some people.
âI canât tell you how many people said, âI didnât believe it until you got it,ââ he said.
Gutierrez, who is 42 and had no underlying conditions, didnât just get COVID-19. He spent 78 days in the hospital because of it. He hopes sharing his story more widely will help people understand that merely talking about âsurvival ratesâ doesnât capture the full dangers of the virus.
His journey started on June 2, he said, when he had âa little cough.â He had been doing yard work and mowing down different kinds of weeds at his Hermiston home, so he chalked it up to allergies. But the next day, after he arrived at work, he realized he might actually be sick. Luckily, he was already in the habit of wearing a mask and staying 6 feet apart from others in the building.
After 78 days in the hospital, COVID-19 survivor remembers it all started with a ‘little cough’
Updated Dec 22, 2020;
Posted Dec 21, 2020
Joe Gutierrez, 42, poses for a picture outside of his Hermiston home on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. Gutierrez spent 78 days in the hospital due to COVID-19 and continues to undergo therapy as a result of it. (Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian)
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By Jade McDowell, East Oregonian
Editor’s note: Oregon newsrooms have partnered to share content to highlight the human toll of the 2020 pandemic. Our hope is this collaboration captures this historic nature of the COVID-19 crisis. This article was contributed by the