Windsor woman gets COVID-19 while in treatment for anorexia
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It was an impossible choice: risk getting COVID-19 with a compromised immune system or let an eating disorder kill her.
Windsor’s Juliana Winik decided to take the risk, and ended up battling both deadly diseases at the same time.
After fighting anorexia nervosa for 12 years, Winik was in the midst of a terrible relapse in March. To save her life, Winik’s doctor wanted to admit her to a medical unit at Mississauga’s Credit Valley Hospital until a bed opened up in the facility’s eating disorders unit.
But the hospital was grappling with a COVID-19 outbreak.
“When they told me I had to go in, there was that moment of weighing the options,” said Winik, 26. “Basically what I came to was that I was going to have to risk my life in order to save my life, because my eating disorder was going to kill me within weeks. But then going to the hospital to get nutrition, there was that high risk of contracting this virus that’s killing so many people. I was very scared.”
Winik was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at age 14, when the disease put her in the hospital for the first time. She has since struggled constantly to stay healthy. At times, her weight has dropped below 80 pounds.
In 2012, she entered University of Windsor’s nursing program. By third year, the pressures of university and life “took over.”
“That kind of re-triggered the eating disorder,” she said.
She’s been in and out of treatment programs for the last five years.
She was treated at Credit Valley Hospital in 2018. But last year, Winik started to relapse. By December, it became clear she needed to go back on the waiting list.
“Over January, February, my eating disorder was getting worse and worse and worse,” said Winik. “My body weight was dropping. Physically I started getting worse symptoms.”
By the end of March, her life was in danger. She was told she could get a bed in Credit Valley’s eating disorders program by early April. Then COVID-19 broke out in the unit and it was shut down.
But when Winik’s doctor saw her, he immediately admitted her to a medical unit. Her white blood cell count was so low she had no immune system. Her blood pressure and heart rate were also dangerously low.
“I was having fainting spells,” said Winik. “I collapsed in a parking lot of Shoppers Drug Mart when I was up there. My legs just gave out. They were too weak to hold me up.”
Anything that was coming in, it was just using to fight the virus. That was a bit of a scary night.
The plan was to get her stabilized and move her to the eating disorder unit when it reopened. They inserted a tube that went through her nose and down into her stomach to give her nutrition.
While in the hospital she suffered from horrible headaches, body aches and an overwhelming malaise. She thought the symptoms were a result her fight with anorexia.
But she was also slightly congested. Then COVID-19 broke out in the medical unit.
“By the time they started testing patients, I started feeling feverish,” said Winik. “That’s kind of when I clued in that maybe this might be something more.”
Everyone in the unit was tested.
“Sure enough, the test came back positive.”
Winik was transferred to the COVID-19 unit. Given her already compromised immune system, nutrition became even more important.
“There was one night, it took them two hours to get my blood sugars up because my body was using all its reserves,” said Winik. “Anything that was coming in, it was just using to fight the virus. That was a bit of a scary night.
“When you’re at that level you could go unconscious into a coma state, you could get brain damage. You could possibly die.”
They had her drink juice. When that didn’t work they pushed juice through her feeding tube. When that failed, they resorted to injections.
Winik said she endured four days of “acute symptoms” as healthcare workers tried to make sure her body had enough nutrition to fight the virus.
“One day the weakness really hit me and I could barely push myself off the chair to stand up,” said Winik.
After doctors and nurses struggled for days to keep Winik’s body strong enough, her fever finally broke, the congestion went away and breathing became easier.
She’s now back home in Windsor after beating COVID-19, but knows another struggle still lies ahead.
“I’m still battling the eating disorder, but so far I’ve been able to renourish myself,” said Winik. “So that’s going well right now. I hope it keeps going well.”
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