Elia is 18 years old and was not part of a risk group. However, she was one of the first victims of the coronavirus in Belgium and found herself in serious condition at the Citadel hospital in Liège. She will finally come out with an amputated leg. She testified with our colleagues from RTBF.
It all started when containment started on March 18. “It was the day when the stores were to close at noon. When my mom came home, I suddenly felt bad. She immediately told me: here we go ” Elia then goes to the hospital and her situation will deteriorate very quickly. Suffering from atypical Covid-19 symptoms, including significant heart failure, the young woman is plunged into an artificial coma.
Finally, Elia will not regain consciousness until more than a month later, on April 15. “When I arrived at the hospital, there were only 4 people affected by the virus and when I woke up, there were 4,000 “, she says. But this awakening also coincides for the young woman with the awareness of the gravity of the events. His right foot had indeed to be amputated, following a blood clot which had formed there. Elia remains positive, however: “It was my parents who made the decision to amputate me, because I was sleeping at that time. I tried to joke about it, I said to my mom, the day she could come to see me: they are only toes, it is not beautiful anyway, toes “.
Unfortunately for Elia, this first amputation is not enough and since the condition of her leg is deteriorating, she must now be amputated up to the tibia. It is this time itself which takes the delicate decision: “I told myself that with all the prostheses that exist today I can have a normal life.”
Despite all these events, the young woman considers herself “miraculous” and that “could have been much worse” and maintains incredible strength of character. She thus plans to resume basketball as soon as possible (“it’s impressive what I can already do, even with my temporary prosthesis”, she says) and go back to school to do her retho. To help him in his revalidation, because all the costs will not be borne by the INAMI, his friends have already mobilized by launching a crowdfunding trough Internet.
Note that given the current upsurge in the number of coronavirus cases in Belgium, Elia wants to get this message across: “I really did not think that at 18 I would be one of the first victims of the Covid. Protect yourself and others because it can happen to anyone and have serious consequences for our lives.”
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