Tales Of Positivity: Angela Schlegal

There aren’t many who can say that the Coronavirus saved their life but recently in what was an unexpected turn of events, that’s what Angela Schlegal is able to say has happened to her after her recent battle with the deadly virus.

Whilst Covid-19 does not discriminate, it is estimated that fewer than 10% of all worldwide fatal cases are under the age of 65 with a large proportion of these deaths have occurred as a result of previous or underlying health conditions. With Schlegal at just 36 years of age it was certainly a shock to her when she contracted the disease and showed symptoms that were not just uncomfortable, but extremely worrying. After displaying these severe symptoms for 11 days, she was admitted to hospital and shortly after, the ICU ward with the need of a ventilator after being told that there was fluid found around her heart and lungs.

Little did she know that this was actually a condition entitled Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EPGA) – a condition that meant that the risk of Coronavirus had the potential to be far more fatal than that of a ‘regular’ 36-year-old woman. If this EPGA had not been diagnosed, there was every chance that she could have died at any time.

It is solely down to the Coronavirus that she was admitted into hospital and evaluated in the first place. It is therefore this reason that the EPGA was found in the first place. In her words “it saved my life in the long term, but in the short term the coronavirus did nearly kill me.”

She went on to spend five weeks in hospital before being discharged. Not only was she seen as a positive light for workers in the Royal Brompton hospital who celebrate the positive news wherever they can find it, but she has since been seen on numerous television and radio interviews telling her story and thus providing a rare positive light on an incredibly dark situation. In an unprecedented position, it may be one of the only cases in the world whereby contracting this virus has, in the end, created a positive reaction. In the ultimate of all ironies, it is the contraction of this disease that quite possibly saved Ms Schlegel’s life.