Long COVID changed his life. Now he's part of a study looking at the scope of the problem in Sask.
CBC
Jarrid Linder still has the scar across his neck from when health-care workers had to intubate him as he was placed into a medically-induced coma to deal with COVID-19.
It's been nearly a year since the 32-year-old was first diagnosed in March 2021.
He survived, but his life has been changed.
Linder had to relearn how to walk after 40 days in the medically induced coma. He had to sell his home and move in with his parents so they could take care of him. He hasn't worked since he had COVID-19 and now must rely on disability payments.
"I used to take one pill before all this started, it was just for acid reflux, and now I take 22 pills a day," he told CBC News in a recent interview.
Linder is one of the many people who continue to suffer prolonged symptoms caused by the virus, a nebulous condition known as long COVID.
For Linder, long COVID means chronic fatigue, head aches, dizziness and heart problems.
"It's been hell," he said.
There are still many questions about long COVID, and very few answers about how it should be treated and how long it will last.
A team of experts in Saskatchewan are hoping to start providing those answers.
Researchers with the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan have launched a new study they hope will give policy makers a picture of what long COVID looks like in the province.
Researchers have continued to study the virus onver the course of the pandemic.
Alyson Kelvin, a virologist at the VIDO, is one of them. She's also one of the lead researchers on the long COVID study.
"Because this is a really new disease and we don't know much about it, we also don't have the services in place to support people with the care that they need to help them recover. " she said.
