At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 38-year-old Daniel Steiner was an active and athletic man. He had great discipline, and three times per week, he either completed 12 laps of the swimming pool or walked up and back down his local mountain, the Üetliberg, at a brisk pace. His greatest passion was long flights on his paraglider. “I had practically never been sick,” says Daniel – whose name has been changed for anonymity.
Craftsmen carried the virus
Switzerland had recovered from the first lockdown when Daniel Steiner commissioned work in-house. As we can all surely remember, protective masks were not yet being recommended by the authorities at that time, and so unsurprisingly neither the craftsmen nor Daniel wore masks. “One of the workers was coughing a lot, but I kept a distance of two meters and I thought that was enough.” Unfortunately, it was precisely at that time that a cold spell had rolled in, and most of the windows were kept closed. The outcome? Daniel Steiner presumably contracted the coronavirus and fell ill with COVID-19.
“I used to walk up the Üetliberg easily. Now my heart rate gets up to 120 when I walk to the fridge.”
His first symptoms appeared after a week. “At the time, I didn’t know much about COVID-19,” says Daniel. “I went to bed and tried to cure what I thought was the flu.” Daniel was first tested three weeks after his infection. The result was negative.
“You’re just a bit out of shape”
For a short while, it seemed as if Daniel was recovering. But things took a sudden turn for the worse: the business consultant suffered an unexpected drop in performance. Within a very short time, his resting heart rate rose to 130 and his oxygen levels dropped dangerously. The family doctor sent Daniel to the emergency room, where he was sent home after a few hours. “You’re just a bit out of shape,” the hospital staff remarked.
This is how Daniel Steiner’s tale of woe with Long COVID began. Most of his problems began with his heart. Daniel was able to recognize this early on thanks to his fitness tracker, which he wore constantly before he became ill. “Now my heart rate gets up to 120 when I walk to the fridge,” he says.
Doctors knew little
Daniel is disappointed by some of the doctors he turned to during his ordeal. They had little knowledge of Long COVID, showed little understanding and even doubted that the syndrome existed at all. All this happened while Daniel was on full-time sick leave, sitting at home suffering with extreme tiredness, heart palpitations, severe coughing and symptoms of memory loss. One doctor said it was probably just depression.
“It probably would have been better to not start exercising again so soon. But nobody warned me back then.”
Getting his estate in order
“When your symptoms aren’t improving and no one is able to help you, you do start to worry,” says Daniel. He followed a journalist from the Guardian on social media, who was affected by Long COVID and would write about his experiences. “His death frightened me terribly.” Daniel began to get his own estate in order.
But the turnaround came for Daniel when an innovative general practitioner prescribed him an anti-inflammatory medicine. After that, he quickly recovered. He was able to get better control of his symptoms and started to educate himself. Although he is not a doctor, Daniel read studies and reports about Long COVID and learned a lot about the syndrome.
Today, Daniel is doing quite well again – he is not cured, but thanks to the medication he can manage his symptoms and is able to work again. Now he is hoping for a rapid vaccination, from which he has high expectations.
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