In the time before COVID-19, Danielle Mortell was biking, hiking, and snowboarding her way through life.
“I was healthy. I was very active. I had climbed to the base camp of Mount Everest in Nepal. I had summited Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous U.S.,” Mortell said.
The 33-year-old was living in Colorado and working full-time at Google when she tested positive for COVID-19 in May 2020.
“It first started with just insane fatigue,” Mortell tells Scripps News. “I was taking three, four-hour long naps during work days. And then a few days after that heavy fatigue, I remember standing up and not being able to catch my breath.”
Mortell ended up having to quit her job, and for the last 3 1/2 years has endured a long list of lingering symptoms. She’s one of millions of Americans dealing with long COVID. Over the last year about 15% of adults infected with the virus reported symptoms lasting longer than three months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey.