A student had his "life ruined" after long covid left him permanently disabled and forced to drop out of medical school. <br /><br />Dylan Kelly, 25, studied chemistry at The University of Manchester and was an avid footballer, swimmer and gym goer before catching covid in February 2020. <br /><br />He had just been accepted to study medicine at Queen's University Belfast and was hoping to become a doctor once he had finished. <br /><br />Dylan's covid cleared but his brain fog and fatigue persisted, so doctors diagnosed him with long covid in May 2020, and chronic fatigue syndrome in August 2020.<br /><br />His long covid caused the chronic fatigue syndrome, brain fog that makes it difficult to even understand speech, a debilitating lack of energy, nerve pain, and migraines.<br /><br />As a result of his severe symptoms, he has rejected his offer at university, can't work, and has had to give up exercise completely as he is a wheelchair bound.<br /><br />Dylan, from Bangor, Northern Ireland, said: "My disability has ruined my life. I had an offer for med school which I had to turn down.<br /><br />"I don’t have the energy to have a social conversation without my brain fog becoming so bad it feels like I can’t understand English.<br /><br />"I have even less energy than before. This has left me in a wheelchair and I spend almost all my time in bed; not how I envisioned my 20's were going to be."<br /><br />Dylan now has to live with his parents, Janet Force, and Gerard Kelly, both 57 as there are when he is unable to even move around in bed.<br /><br />Janet, a civil servant, has had to change the departments and teams she works in so she can work from home part of the time and care for Dylan.<br /><br />Dylan said: "Without my mum looking after me it would be impossible to live. <br /><br />"I’ve been keeping myself occupied with Netflix, Tiktok and messaging my friends because that’s about all I can do."<br /><br />Dylan visited a neurologist in August of 2022 and was told that his covid may have attacked his nervous system, causing his disability.<br /><br />Between 150,000 and 250,000 people in the UK have chronic fatigue syndrome and the disease has no known treatments. <br /><br />This leaves Dylan hope for Dylan's future, he has given up his dreams of becoming a doctor.<br /><br />He said: "I try not to think about my future at all and just try to get through each day.<br /><br />"I had to learn to live with this disability and grieve my old life. <br /><br />"I had to accept I would not become the doctor I had dreamed of being. Eventually, it got easier but it’s still not easy. <br /><br />"I was in long COVID support groups online but I soon left them because people were posting recoveries when it seemed like I was just getting worse. <br /><br />"My belief is the only way I’ll recover from this illness is if a treatment is found; without a treatment I’ll be forced to live the rest of my life in bed. <br /><br />"I can’t exercise because if I do my symptoms get worse and my overall health suffers meaning I have even less energy than before.<br /><br />"I was part of a football team, went to the gym three to four times a week and was very socially active.
