Family caregivers of people with long COVID bear an extra burden

For Louise Salant, long COVID has meant new stress, new responsibilities, and multiple medical crises to manage. It's transformed her life.

But there's a twist. She's had to deal with this condition not just as a patient but also as a caregiver for her 86-year-old aunt Eileen Salant, who has coped with long COVID's disabling symptoms for almost three years.

Eileen and Louise both caught an acute bout of COVID-19 in March of 2020. Eileen had been taking care of her brother, who was admitted to a New York City hospital with heart failure during those dark days of the early pandemic. He got COVID there, and died from his infection with the virus. Both aunt and niece also became very ill.

It was early days of the pandemic in New York, and hospitals were so crowded that Louise was told to stay home and fight out the illness on her own. Meanwhile, Eileen was hospitalized and stayed thereall spring, including two months on a ventilator. After that, she spent five months at— but she was very weak.