A timeline of Coronavirus in 2020. Graphic / Phil Welch
Not even a world in pandemic could halt Helena Power's glamorous, globe-trotting life.
While looking after and teaching the child of a London billionaire, the 26-year-old Kiwi spent much of 2020 boarding private jets to retreats in Ibiza, Switzerland and Australia.
Then she caught Covid-19 in London in December.
Nowher damaged lungs resemble those of a 20-year smoker, leaving her so short of breath she can't leave the house. She spends up to 12 hours a day sleeping.
Hospitalised twice, each time she spent the hours beforehand desperately gasping for breath.
Instead, Auckland-raised Power now thinks her story is a timely reminder to New Zealanders that beyond their charmed borders lies an alternate reality of a pandemic-ravaged world battling a highly infectious new Covid strain.
It has pushed hospitals to the brink. The National Health Service this week said a coronavirus patient was admitted every 30 seconds.
The young haven't been immune either. Three of Power's healthy, young buddies were struck down at the same time as her.
They were now recovering better than her, but all were still battling exhaustion and most suffered worse initial symptoms.
Power said she had been studiously following health guidelines and trying to avoid the virus.
She had just changed jobs and started with a new family in London before they moved to Qatar.
Leaving Power behind in an apartment fronting London's prestigious Hyde Park, the young Kiwi was waiting for her Qatar visa to come through before jetting off to join them.
Twenty-six-year-old Kiwi Helena power has spent more than a month battling severe effects from Covid. Photo / Supplied
But on December 17 she tested positive to Covid.
Her mandatory 10 days' quarantining in her apartment wasn't so bad. She was tired, a little short of breath and had lost her sense of taste and smell.
But then, 17 days after testing positive, she went for a walk with a friend and started "having really bad problems breathing".
After a couple of hours struggling to breathe, her friend called an ambulance.
In hospital on January 3, the doctors took X-rays.
"They said my lungs had been damaged from having Covid," Power said.
"Despite being 26 and never having smoked - I don't even drink alcohol - my lungs looked like someone who had smoked for 20 years."
She was later discharged, with instructions to keep taking steroids, try her best to look after herself and was handed an inhaler to puff whenever she needed.
Alone in her apartment in a fog of sleep and exhaustion with no one to check on her, she relied on a friend in Canada, who took it upon themselves to order Uber Eats for her every day.
A day or so later, she became sick again and called another ambulance.
Helena Power hiking in Switzerland. Photo / Supplied
Treating her kindly but much the same as earlier, the gist of the doctors' message was don't come back unless you really have to - "if you are dying", Power said.
Virtually all the country's hospitals were at capacity, and Power knew of friends waiting eight to 12 hours for ambulances to arrive.
Luckily, she had an uncle living an hour south of London with his family, who took her in.
She said she was still sleeping long hours, and just moving from room to room was exhausting.
Returning for a recent doctor's check-up, she asked what she could do to get better.
The doctor said medical teams didn't know. They told her her lungs had "forgotten how to work" but were expected to recover in two weeks to three months.
Medics were seeing the same phenomenon in lots of other patients, young people included.
"The doctor said that at the moment health teams were focused on trying to keep people alive," Power said.
Twenty-six-year-old Kiwi Helena Power has spent more than a month battling severe effects from Covid. Photo / Supplied
"Then, once they get to the point where everyone is fine, they can better treat the people with side-effects."
Power's billionaire former employers also suffered.
