‘I thought I was going to die’: Local woman, who’s had COVID-19 twice, talks about how it changed her life

PITTSBURGH — A local woman who lived a healthy life says she had COVID-19 twice and she is still experiencing symptoms months after testing positive.

“I was normal. I was healthy. I was walking, running, having fun, spending time with my grandkids,” Deana Keenan said.

Keenan said she can’t get upstairs and has to use a walker after getting COVID-19 twice. For the past several months she’s lived in the basement of her home.

“When I got COVID-19 the first time, I was fine,” she said.

Several months later, she said her legs started to feel numb so she called her doctor.

“She said maybe it’s ‘post COVID.’ That’s what they were calling it at that time,” Keenan said.

Her condition continued to get worse and she wound up in the emergency room.

“I ended up being in the hospital for over two months,” Keenan said.

She developed blood clots in her lungs and one of her legs. Doctors gave her a series of tests and she had to take all kinds of medication. She said she was eventually released to a rehab facility where she tested positive a second time for COVID-19.

“When I got it the second time, my hands didn’t work. I couldn’t talk, use my legs or my arms by the time I was finished,” Keenan said.

She’s been getting home therapy and doing a lot of praying. She hopes she’ll be able to get the vaccine sometime soon.

Three more COVID-19 vaccination sites to open in Allegheny County