Teenager, Suffering From Long Covid For 4 Years, Re-Learning How To Walk

Lilly Downs led what she described as the "typical life of a junior in high school" in her hometown of Golden, Colorado. She was actively engaged in playing soccer competitively every day and enrolled in honors classes. However, everything changed when the Covid pandemic struck in March 2020.

Initially, there was a widespread belief that young individuals like Downs wouldn't experience severe symptoms from the respiratory illness. This assumption seemed accurate until Downs herself contracted the virus in November of that year.

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Has been in the hospital for more than a year in 4 years

As per PEOPLE, she experienced “bad fatigue" as a result of “classic Covid symptoms,” like fever and chills. But 9 days later, Downs ended up in the hospital with respiratory symptoms — and then developed “painful” lesions all over her skin.

“They were throwing max doses of steroids at me, which we think ended up making things much worse because that suppresses your immune system,” Downs, who spent two months in the hospital that first time, told PEOPLE. “The virus just began to take over.”

Just two months after being sent home, Downs found herself back in the hospital, this time with lesions in her stomach and another bout of Covid. It was during this hospitalisation that she received an official diagnosis of Long Covid.

One problem after another

After being prescribed antibiotics, and over the course of four years, Downs developed C.Diff., followed by gastroparesis requiring two surgeries for a feeding tube. She also developed autoimmune disorders triggered by Covid, leading to hospitalisations and life-threatening events. Recently, she was hospitalised with a fungal infection caused by her feeding tube's nutrition solution.

“We would try to fix one problem and then another problem would come up because we fixed the first problem," she said.

She’s been documenting her health journey on TikTok, where she has more than 1,35,000 followers who watch her day-in-the-life videos.

As the CDC notes, "Living with Long Covid can be hard, especially when there are no immediate answers or solutions" — and adds that they're still working to "better understand" the long-term ramifications of the virus.

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