Long COVID survivor still fighting symptoms 5 years after start of pandemic
GREENVALE, Nassau County (WABC) -- A long COVID survivor is still recovering five years after the pandemic first swept across the world.
Brian Jaffe has pulmonary rehab twice a week for at least an hour with his vitals always monitored and his oxygen is a permanent appendage. It's a far cry from his celebratory release from the hospital five years ago.
"I still have pulmonary fibrosis, I still have a narrowed airway," Jaffe said.
Jaffe was a health care worker in what he now calls a "hornet's nest" of COVID exposure.
"They admitted me right away and within about 24 hours I was in a coma," he said.
He spent 39 days being intubated and said he even died three times.
In the past five years, Eyewitness News has continued to follow Jaffe, now age 58. He's needed a pacemaker, 18 stents, he had his gallbladder removed and it is hard to take every breath with a partially paralyzed diaphragm and vocal cord problems.
It takes hours to get to and from rehab, but it's his lifeline.
"If I stop for more than a day or two, I start declining fairly significantly," Jaffe said.
His doctors are supportive but are reluctant to give out false hope.
"Maybe most important to recognize the problem, not to ignore it, not to poo poo it," said St. Francis Director of Critical Care Dr. Evan Sorett.
Jaffe said the thing he wants people to understand most about patients suffering with long COVID is that it's real.
The reality is there's still so much unknown about long COVID -- the neurological effects, the cognitive dysfunction, and the actual causes that doctors are still struggling to understand.
What they do know is we have come a long way from the days of complete isolation and no answers.
"So we wanna keep him as healthy as possible, that means vaccinations, nutrition, education," Sorett said.
Jaffe has sold his home and one of his family cars and is determined to keep putting one foot in front of the other. And there is plenty COVID can't take from him - including his sense of humor.
"I need this for my Olympic trials," he joked.
He marks the milestones with his family by just being alive -- even on the toughest days.
"Each anniversary is a reminder of that and it's difficult," Jaffe said.
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