‘You become a shell of your former self’ – sufferers of long-Covid appear before Oireachtas committee

People with long-Covid can end up just a shell of their former selves and have to contend with being gaslit, a sufferer of the condition said yesterday.

Pamela Morrison told the Oireachtas health committee that she caught Covid when she returned to Ireland from the UK where she had been involved in Covid planning.

Ms Morrison, a member of Long Covid Advocacy Ireland, said: “I am now four years on and I have never gone back to my house in London. My life is on hold and you are in limbo.”

She said: “It is a grief and you become a shell of your former self.”

The group highlighted the majority of people who contact them have had negative experiences with HSE long-Covid clinics.

Co-founder Sarah O’Connell said one person was on a ­waiting list for nine months but just ended up with a 15-minute consultation where the focus was on cardiac and respiratory issues.

Once those were ruled out she was passed over to occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

The clinic in University Hospital Limerick is only seeing six to eight patients a month and clinics can only operate for around two-and-a-half to four hours a week, they added.

Although brain fog and cognitive problems can be ongoing symptoms of long-Covid, there is only one neurologist in the country, in St James’s Hospital, appointed to the care of these patients.

She said they understand there is no silver bullet for long-Covid but they feel they are not getting the level of help they should be getting.

“There is a lot that can be done in terms of symptom management but patients are having to go private and spend a lot of money to get treatment.”

The group estimates that some 350,000 people in Ireland could have long-Covid in some form.

HSE officials and doctors who appeared before the committee said most patients improve in time but “not all”.

It is not possible to tell a patient at the time of diagnosis how long they will be affected.

The problem is that there is no known reason why some people develop long-Covid after getting the virus.

Doctors said they are always looking for a chance to provide some treatment of symptoms and reduce them by some percentage and denied they were “casting aspersions” on the validity of patients’ symptoms.

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