Long Covid symptoms left mum 'living a nightmare' for a year

Darlington mum Sarah Wood beat the odds of survival after being put on a ventilator, twice, when she fell critically ill with Covid in March last year. 

Miss Wood was rushed to Darlington Memorial Hospital with breathing issues on March 27, 2020, after nearly a week of illness. Within an hour, she was x-rayed and tested positive for coronavirus.

• READ MORE: Long Covid: Why this woman is not recovering months after falling ill

Today, Miss Wood, of Skerne Park, has a case of 'long Covid' and says the pandemic has taken a toll on her family. 

While she has long-lasting symptoms of coronavirus and suffers from post-traumatic stress, her young daughter has separation anxiety and sleepless nights.

Long Covid includes mild to severe persistent symptoms as well as mental health problems like depression and anxiety, with some reporting breathlessness, chronic fatigue and brain fog – months after initially falling ill with the virus.

Partner Christopher McCurdy, daughter Amber and mum Sarah Wood

It has been nearly a year since Miss Wood, who has diabetes, was diagnosed. She returned home on April 16, 2020, after multiple negative tests but has been unable to forget the experience. 

She said: "I still have health problems. I'm suffering from tiredness and breathlessness. I just wish it would go away.

"My family and friends are supportive but no one understands how I feel because they have not been there. 

"I remember quite a lot from intensive care and when I was in a coma and feel like I'm living in a nightmare. It's everything, Covid is all around us. Everything on TV and social media. I don't even listen to the radio any more, we have CDs in the car."

After a week in on a ventilator, the hospital lowered Miss Wood's paralysis medication and sedatives with a plan to wake her and remove the ventilator pipe from her throat.

The mum's throat after her stay in hospital

She was stable and becoming responsible but the process was complicated when medical staff saw Miss Wood's throat was inflamed and had signs of infection.

The mum was induced into a coma for a second time, which she previously said she can remember happening.

She previously said: "I cannot physically wear a face mask because it feels like I'm being suffocated. I have very vivid flashbacks of them waking me up to take the tube out. They are random and can end in a panic attack."

Miss Wood, who is now having counselling for her PTSD, says she has been shouted at in public for being 'the woman with Covid', while others who have had the virus have reached out to her for support.

She said: "My counsellor has been a godsend but there is no support for families. 

"No one really realises the effect it has on your family. My partner and daughter are still really struggling and worried about me getting it again.

Daughter Amber and Miss Wood

"My daughter just clings to me all of the time, she has separation anxiety and doesn't sleep properly. It's awful seeing her like."

The mum is keen for the current, "neverending" lockdown to end but expressed concern over new variants of the virus.

The Prime Minister announced the first UK lockdown on March 23 last year. 

The year anniversary comes as more than half of the UK’s adult population has now received its first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine – a milestone hailed as a “phenomenal achievement” by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.