Roxana Badaloni
07/22/2021 1:25 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 07/22/2021 1:25 PM
Alan walks with great difficulty, does not control the movements of his body and can hardly sleep.
She is 20 years old, lives in the city of San Rafael and suffers from a post-Covid neurological complication that causes an involuntary compulsive disorder (TIC).
After a month without a precise diagnosis, his mother Mariela decided to ask for help through social networks and received a cataract of solidarity and a new medical treatment in Mendoza.
Alan Bastida Robert, his full name, tested positive for Covid-19 on June 1.
He was not vaccinated.
The first studies found that his body had
severe deficiencies, lack of vitamin D and B complex.
They detected a bilateral pneumonia and he was hospitalized for a week.
Then an allergic reaction appeared that was treated with corticosteroids and, 17 days later, began with spasms.
His hands trembled, his knees buckled and he kicked involuntarily, eventually his neck and jaw joined with uncontrollable jerking movements, to one side and the other.
The boy who weighs 90 kilos and measures 1.83 meters, lost 13 kilos during hospitalization.
"It's a nightmare. I feel a lot of pain and I don't rest even when I'm asleep ”
, Alan tells
Clarín
.
Before the Covid, he studied surgical instrumentation, practiced boxing, and worked in social networks in the Culture area of the Municipality of San Rafael, south of Mendoza.
I was going to work by bicycle, but now it has lost all autonomy.
From going to the bathroom, showering, sitting down to eat, using the phone, walking is a torment due to uncontrollable movements.
“At night, despite taking painkillers and sleeping pills, he can't sleep more than three or four hours.
He continues with the tics, ”says his mother, who filmed each stage of Alan's disorder.
A month after not being able to advance in a precise diagnosis and seeing that his health was deteriorating, his mother Mariela Robert (46) decided to request voluntary discharge from the Schestakow hospital.
Together with his mother, he traveled to the city of Mendoza, with the financial support of the Directorate of Social Development of the Municipality of San Rafael.
Upon arriving in the capital of Mendoza, he was treated by Dr. Juan Manuel Genco, a specialist in abnormal movements of the neurology medical team at the Luis Lagomaggiore public hospital and one of the professionals from the private institute Neuromed Argentina.
They also attended another consultation with the neurologist Andrés Barboza.
Medical diagnoses, after seeing the result of neurological studies, agree that Alan
does not have genetic disease or neuronal damage
caused by Covid.
He has a functional and suggestive disorder, which requires physical therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, that there is no specific medication to treat these disorders.
Neuromed's specialist in Covid disorders, Celia Daraio, who contacted Alan, explains that: "There is no neurological injury, the studies are all normal."
And he details that there are important components of fear and emotional: "A functional disorder, generated by anxiety and that must be treated with physical and cognitive therapy," he says.
Although the specialist assures that this is Alan's case, it is a severe psychosocial condition, which he had not seen another like that, there are many patients with post-covid psychosomatic complications.
Alan's personal situation can also help to understand his emotional state, the young man is the breadwinner of his family.
He lives with his mother and his brother Gastón, with down syndrome, the mother is unemployed and searches for them to sell catalog products and help with the family finances.
Alan is the only one with a formal job and is considered the “strong” of the family
, as described by Mariela, his mother.
The residents of the Los Olivos neighborhood, in the National Square, San Rafael are moved by the drama of this family.
It was they who decided to make the case public, through social networks.
Far from home but aware of so many people who are following and helping them, Mariela says: “Fortunately, the doctors have told us that it is not a psychiatric illness, nor is it genetic.
I have a lot of faith that it will go well for us ”.
Mendoza. Correspondent.
GL