My 23 yeard old had a COVID related heart attack last night. [View all]

[TXPaganBanker]

My 23 year old daughter had COVID in January, before they were eligible for the vaccine. Even though they constantly wore a mask, limited exposure outside the house, etc, they still had to go to work. Their employer didn't enforce masks in the store, and Kiddo caught the bug. They were down for about a week and had a horrible time with it, then were fatigued for another two weeks or so, but fortunately they weren't bad enough to have to be hospitalized (Their employer threatened to fire them if they didn't get back to work. Turns out the employer was allowing people to work with a positive COVID status because "COVID is fake and the government is using it to give free money to poor people." But that's another topic.). Kiddo got vaccinated as soon as they were eligible.

Fast forward seven months later. I got a call at 3 AM that Kiddo had a heart attack and is being rushed to the ER. I'm able to make the 45 minute drive in 30 minutes, and am there as they go through a battery of tests. EKG, echocardiogram, CT scan, X-ray... looking for blood clots or other damage. After six hours, they determine there is an abnormal inflammation on the interior lining of the chest wall which is putting pressure on the heart. The heart's response was to freak out and mimic all the symptoms of a heart attack (intense chest pain, numbness in chest and left arm, weakness (they collapsed and were unable to support themselves to get to the car), etc). The hospital said it wasn't ACTUALLY a heart attack, it just replicated all the effects, there shouldn't be any permanent scarring of the heart or loss of function. Kiddo's probably going to be on anti-inflammatories for the foreseeable future, and the doc warned them to expect activity limiting fatigue. The doctor said they've been finding this in COVID patients, even those that have been recovered for as long as Kiddo has been. No one has any idea how long it will last or if it will ever go away.

I've buried four family members to COVID so far. I don't want to lose my kid. Yet, with all that, I have family members that "don't believe in COVID / vaccines" and wonder why I've cut them out of my life. I just don't understand.





(Pronoun note: Kiddo is ENBY, they/them. We're still working on a replacement for 'daughter', but using Kiddo / Middle Spawn for now. Not using their name for privacy)