Firefighter and paramedic Mike Camilleri once had no trouble hauling heavy gear up ladders. Now battling long COVID-19, he gingerly steps onto a treadmill to learn how his heart handles a simple walk.
"This is, like, not a tough-guy test so don't fake it," said Beth Hughes, a physical therapist at Washington University in St. Louis.
Somehow, a mild case of COVID-19 set off a chain reaction that eventually left Camilleri with dangerous blood pressure spikes, a heartbeat that raced with slight exertion and episodes of intense chest pain. Doctors were stumped until Camilleri found a Washington University cardiologist who had treated patients with similar post-COVID heart trouble.
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