The dad of an Irish teenager has spoken about how her life changed when she first contracted coronavirus almost a year ago.
Rosie Pidgeon, 17, was a champion Irish dancer and had even performed on-stage at Disneyland in the past. In September 2021, she contracted coronavirus and originally had mild symptoms.
But now, 11 months on, Rosie continues to live with Long Covid which has debilitated her, leaving her with daily migraines, extreme fatigue, and muscle pain that sometimes means she's unable to get out of bed.
Last year, she achieved top grades in her GCSEs with 9A's and an A*, but now the condition means Rosie struggles to read properly and is unable to live her life as a regular teenager.
"It was from mid September she started to get more symptoms after having mild symptoms during the acute phase. She wasn't getting better; in fact she was getting worse, she was fainting and she still has a headache a lot of the time, but it was constant for around six months. That was horrendous," Rosie's dad, Colin, told Belfast Live.
"The impact on her has been significant. She was doing the Duke of Edinburgh Award, she was volunteering, she was doing dancing, she performed at Disneyland in 2019 with her dance school. Now, none of that is possible.She wasn't able to do her psychology or English A-Levels, she battled to complete her AS Level Art."
When the Long Covid clinics first opened in late 2021, Rosie was referred by her GP for treatment. However, at that time the clinics weren't treating anyone under the age of 18.
"That was enormously frustrating," Colin added. "Rosie went into this kind of limbo. She was really courageous and agreed to do an interview with the BBC.
"Soon before the interview, the policy was changed and 16 to 18 year olds started to be accepted into the Long Covid clinics. It was great she was able to be seen, but the treatment she was given was pathetic. The other problem is it really shouldn't take going and sobbing on TV to get something changed.
"She had an assessment via Zoom, which was a questionnaire where she gave scores out of 10, how hard do you find it to put your socks on, that kind of thing. That was so exhausting for her they had to do it in two goes.
"She had a further appointment around a month later, where they basically told her to keep a diary - this was after she told them she finds it very difficult to read now because of the cognitive dysfunction.
"They had another assessment and they told her to try to get out for a walk every other day, and said there wasn't much else they could do, and in effect discharged her. They repeated the assessment and it showed she hadn't got any better, but it isn't a surprise when you haven't really offered any treatment."
In the year since, Rosie has dropped out of school and even something as simple as a ten minute walk or a chat with friends can have her exhausted for days. Colin is calling for further research to be undertaken in Northern Ireland into how coronavirus can impact children.
He said: "She's getting the humiliation of being a 17 year old who was a champion Irish dancer, who I'm now pushing around in a wheelchair half the time. There's no incentive for her to make her symptoms up. It's all very frustrating.
"Rosie has dropped out of school. She's hopefully going to be able to manage going to Belfast Met in September but there's no guarantee she'll be able to manage it.
"It's very hard when even sitting and talking to her friend for half an hour can wipe her out for hours, or give her a migraine that lasts for five days. The trouble is the impact of it can be cumulative.
"Say she walks the dog for 10 minutes on a Monday, then on Wednesday was getting the effect, but on Tuesday had maybe sat in her friend's house for an hour, the impact of that she could be feeling on Thursday on top of the rest. It's trying to stay within the energy envelope without causing a massive crash, which is really difficult.
"A lot of people have been heavily impacted by this and their lives have been destroyed. But we just don't know how many other people are having their lives destroyed at the moment due to it."
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said post Covid services have been designed for people aged 16 years and over, with those younger than this being referred to Trust paediatric services in line with their individual needs. In addition, they said further high quality research is needed to inform future treatments.
They added: "Unfortunately, there is no specific diagnostic test for Long Covid and the evidence base for interventions specifically aimed at a curative treatment for Long Covid is sparse at present. High quality research is needed to inform future treatments and models of care.
"Until then, the current service is focused on holistic assessment, exclusion of other significant conditions, identifying patients with breathlessness who may benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation and those who need onward referral to secondary or community services. This is complemented by signposting to self-management resources.
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