A Briton thought he had a long Covid when he was in the terminal phase of cancer

Contaminated by the virus in February 2021, Rob Hale and his doctor were convinced of it: the night sweats, the fatigue and the fever from which he suffered months after his infection could only be the signs of a long Covid.

But it was much worse than that: this 33-year-old British engineer actually had acute myeloid leukemia, he learned in April 2021. When picked up, Rob Hale was ‘very close to dying’, reports The Independentto whom the young man confided.

Still poorly understood by experts, the long Covid corresponds to a prolongation of the symptoms of Covid-19 at least four weeks after infection. Symptoms range from fatigue to shortness of breath, through cough, headache, hives or even eye fatigue, counts the Health Insurance. A pathology that can lead to a long medical wandering and to diagnostic errors.

Behind the night sweats and fatigue, a generalized cancer

Rob had worked as a calibration engineer for an aerospace manufacturer for over 15 years. In February 2021, like millions of other people around the world, he contracted Covid-19. And like millions of former infected, the latter saw his symptoms last. Near The Independent, the latter reports “extreme exhaustion and repeated fevers”.

But a call from the Bristol Royal Infirmary, who was following him at the time, turned everything upside down. At the end of the line, he is told that at 33, he has acute myeloid leukemia, a blood cancer that mainly affects the elderly, and that he only has a few months left to live. “When the phone call ended, I remember leaning over the machine I was working on and started crying,” the young man said.

10 days after his diagnosis, he was admitted to the hospital. And this, in a particularly critical state. 95% of abnormal cells (blast cells) were present in his blood at that time. Several rounds of chemotherapy, eight radiation therapy sessions and a stem cell transplant later, doctors eventually discovered that the cancer had spread to his central nervous system.

The terminal phase is pronounced in December 2022. “I should have died in May 2021, but the fact that I am still here, it is worth having gone through everything to have this extra time”, he confessed He has since documented his journey on the @robs_final_dance Instagram account.