Caught Twice:  A Covid-19 Survivor’s Story

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, January 28, 2022 – In late December of 2019, most of the world was cleaning up after Christmas, preparing to ring in the New Year.  A few news stories trickled down from international media about a virus in Wuhan, China but it didn’t seem there was much to fear – yet.

Social Scientist, Merline Handfield-Ulysse was on her way to a small university seminar after traveling a bit over the holidays. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Merline’s lecturer started coughing first.

Then a few classmates picked up the bug, but it was winter in England the flu was common.

“To be fair, every winter I had that horrible winter flu so to me it wasn’t a big deal,” Merline says.

And then just days later, “It wasn’t a big deal except my chest was hurting to a level that I couldn’t explain. Sometimes the pain was so much that I felt my heart was going to stop. I kept coughing until one day I coughed blood,” Merline recalled.

The symptom was concerning enough to prompt Merline to book an appointment with her doctor. And months before the pandemic was declared, before contact tracing and social distancing, before many medical doctors were even acquainted with the new virus, Merline was told that she needed a chest x-ray.

“At that point, I couldn’t talk, they told me I had Pharyngitis (a symptom of an extremely sore throat) and a bit of fluid in my lungs.”

This was only about a week into January 2020 and Merline said she returned to university but other people she knew were not so lucky.

“At that time I don’t think we had test and trace in place yet because we were at the beginning stage of the pandemic… some of my mates were hospitalized with that cold and they said it was pneumonia. Myself I said I had Pharyngitis, I didn’t know it was COVID until later on.”

She would find out months later in March, when the pandemic was finally declared.

Persons who had recorded cases of having that ‘bad flu’ were called in, including Merline who tested positive for SarsCoV2 or coronavirus antibodies.

When Merline spoke to Magnetic Media about her eventful introduction to the coronavirus on Wednesday, January 19th nearly two years after that first incident she said she was doing great, only waiting for her sense of taste to come back fully. The missing sense was the only holdover of not the first, but Merline’s second harrowing COVID-19 infection.

Merline was fully vaccinated when she contracted the virus again and explained that she took every precaution to avoid reliving her first Covid-19 experience.

“I wore my mask everywhere, I had hand sanitizer, spray, gel, cream, you name it, in my bag, in my jacket in my pocket. When I went out I came back and took my clothes off and shoved everything into the washing machine.”

Despite her best efforts, Merline found herself falling ill again in December 2021.

The second bout of sickness, she said, was much worse.

It started with an excruciating headache that grew progressively worse, and then came a strange symptom.

“I felt like I had a fever and I was freezing at the same time,” Merline said.

Merline who established the empowerment program, YELAH, migrated from the Caribbean.  Originally from Haiti, she has spent years in the Turks and Caicos Islanders, where she raised two stand-out students who both continue to soar academically and professionally.

They are a close-knit family, but with everyone separated as each were happily devoted to their own pursuits, no one was there when Merline experienced the extreme dizziness, toothaches, and fatigue… all in the span of three days.

After that, she was unable to leave her bedroom for four days and lost her sense of taste and smell. For that entire week, she was unable to eat, only occasionally drinking water and juice.

She was remotely tested for the virus and the test confirmed what she already suspected, a breakthrough infection of Covid-19.

Though Merline is on the way to recovery, by the sound of her voice recounting the experience it was clear that the ordeal had been severe.

But she is strong, not unfamiliar with adversity and overcoming them with incredible poise and an ever deepening perspective.

A devoted mother to her own children and others, an advocate striving for equity and opportunity of black and Caribbean people transitioning to the UK and a life-long learner who has evolved as a sought after speaker and leader in the African Diaspora, Merline refers to her emergence from the early case as a “miracle.”

She is today, every day giving thanks that she has survived the disease which so many have fallen victim to, able to share her Covid story with those who know, love and pray for her at home and abroad.