A student at the University of Manchester had his "life ruined" after long Covid left him permanently disabled and forced to drop out of medical school.
Dylan Kelly, 25, who studied chemistry, was an avid footballer, swimmer and gym goer before catching coronavirus in February 2020. He had just been accepted to study medicine at Queen's University Belfast and was hoping to become a doctor once he had finished.
Dylan's Covid cleared but his brain fog and fatigue persisted, so doctors diagnosed him with long Covid in May 2020, and chronic fatigue syndrome in August 2020. His long Covid caused the chronic fatigue syndrome, brain fog that makes it difficult to even understand speech, a debilitating lack of energy, nerve pain, and migraines.
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As a result of his severe symptoms, he has rejected his offer at university, can't work, and has had to give up exercise completely as he is a wheelchair bound.
Dylan, from Bangor, Northern Ireland, said: "My disability has ruined my life. I had an offer for med school which I had to turn down. I don’t have the energy to have a social conversation without my brain fog becoming so bad it feels like I can’t understand English.
"I have even less energy than before. This has left me in a wheelchair and I spend almost all my time in bed; not how I envisioned my 20's were going to be."
Dylan now has to live with his parents, Janet Force, and Gerard Kelly, both 57. Janet, a civil servant, has had to change the departments and teams she works in so she can work from home part of the time and care for Dylan.
Dylan said: "Without my mum looking after me it would be impossible to live. I’ve been keeping myself occupied with Netflix, Tiktok and messaging my friends because that’s about all I can do."
Dylan visited a neurologist in August of 2022 and was told that his Covid may have attacked his nervous system, causing his disability. Between 150,000 and 250,000 people in the UK have chronic fatigue syndrome and the disease has no known treatments.
"I try not to think about my future at all and just try to get through each day," Dylan said. "I had to learn to live with this disability and grieve my old life. I had to accept I would not become the doctor I had dreamed of being. Eventually, it got easier but it’s still not easy."
Dylan joined long Covid support groups online but said he soon left them because "people were posting recoveries when it seemed like I was just getting worse".
"My belief is the only way I’ll recover from this illness is if a treatment is found; without a treatment I’ll be forced to live the rest of my life in bed," he said. "I can’t exercise because if I do my symptoms get worse and my overall health suffers meaning I have even less energy than before."
Dylan said: "I was part of a football team, went to the gym three to four times a week and was very socially active. I have had friends come round to visit me but that exhausts me quickly so it never feels worth it.
"I can no longer plan and look forward to exciting things because my life is just stuck in this bed. However, if i miraculously woke up cured I’d definitely be reapplying to med school."
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