This story is reported by Florida Today, a Spectrum News partner.
BREVARD, Fla. -- After 21-year-old Canaveral Groves resident Spencer Rollyson bounced back from mild COVID-19 symptoms in May, he didn’t think the virus was a big deal — “I thought it was still a joke.”
But mysteriously, two weeks after testing negative for the coronavirus and returning to work, Rollyson started suffering from an array of symptoms: fever, chills, nausea, severe headaches, abdominal and chest pain.
His fever eventually reached 103.4 degrees — and Rollyson fell unconscious in the middle of a June 15 telehealth appointment. His mother drove him to AdventHealth East Orlando, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit and placed on a ventilator.
Doctors diagnosed Rollyson with multi-organ failure with heart failure, acute respiratory failure, and severe sepsis with septic shock.
"I thought I was going to die. I was literally sitting in the hospital like, ‘I’m going to die,' " Rollyson recalled.
“I thought for sure I was gone,” he said.
(Spencer Rollyson was admitted to the intensive care unit and placed on a ventilator at AdventHealth East Orlando. Courtesy photo)
Instead, Rollyson survived, returning home to recover after a five-day stay. He said he is now taking two blood-pressure medications — and one of his doctors advised him to avoid a high heart rate over the next year to reduce his risk of cardiac arrest. He will return to the hospital Wednesday for an electrocardiogram checkup.
Rollyson recounted his harrowing hospital experience in a Facebook warning to friends and relatives who are not taking the coronavirus seriously:
"Two weeks after I tested negative for the virus is when I went into the ICU and was on the verge of death. I had heart failure, respiratory failure and many other things. I was put on a breathing machine because I was not able to breathe on my own," Rollyson wrote.
"Please take this virus seriously. I had no prior health issues and it almost (took) my life. Be safe!" he wrote.
(Canaveral Groves resident Spencer Rollyson recounted his brush with death and posted his hospital diagnosis in a Facebook warning. Florida Today photo)
Long-term complications of the coronavirus remain unknown, said Dr. Luis Junco, AdventHealth East Orlando infectious disease medical director. He said links between COVID-19 and Rollyson's health crisis are unclear.
“This virus can weaken the immune system, so you become more vulnerable or susceptible to acquire new infections after you get this virus. So that’s a possibility in this case,” he said.
Junco said Rollyson was suffering from pneumonia and inflammation of the heart and intestines when he was admitted to the hospital. He said Rollyson received a spectrum of antibiotics and recovered relatively quickly.
“Spencer is young, so we usually don’t see that kind of complications,” Junco said.
Saturday, Boston Red Sox officials announced that 27-year-old pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez was out for the season after he developed myocarditis — an inflammation of the heart muscle — after he recovered from COVID-19.
Two German studies published last week found heart abnormalities in COVID-19 patients months after they had recovered from the disease, USA Today reported.
And the National Kidney Foundation warns that COVID-19 will likely result in a higher number of Americans with chronic kidney disease.
(Meagan and Spencer Rollyson, who are both 21, suffered mild COVID-19 symptoms in May. Spencer later suffered life-threatening COVID-19 after-effects that sent him to the AdventHealth East Orlando ICU. Tim Shortt/Florida Today)
Rollyson graduated from Edgewood Jr./Sr. High on Merritt Island in 2016. He manages Green Acres Lawn Service Group, his father’s business.
In January, he married his wife, Meagan, 21, a 2017 Melbourne High graduate. She works at Flying J Travel Center in West Cocoa, and she is enrolled in the dental assisting program at Eastern Florida State College. She also tested positive for COVID-19 in May, and she had mild symptoms.
“I’m still young, and I have a lot of friends that are still not taking it seriously," Spencer Rollyson said.
"I’m married. I run my dad’s business. So I don’t have a lot of time to go out and be partying and all that. I basically work all day and go home. And I still got it," he said.
"I didn’t take this seriously at all — but look what happened to me,” he said.
Among Florida residents, 20.7% of confirmed COVID-19 cases (106,347 out of 512,421) have been people age 24 or younger, the Florida Department of Health reports. But these younger folks only account for 0.2% of coronavirus deaths among Florida residents (23 out of 7,927).
Researchers know relatively little about the return to baseline health for people who become mildly ill with COVID-19, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released two weeks ago.
According to a survey of coronavirus survivors in 13 states, one in five people ages 18 to 34 with no chronic medical conditions had not returned to their usual state of health two to three weeks after testing positive.
Rollyson's mother, Amy, works as an AdventHealth transcription supervisor. She said the day her son was admitted to the hospital was "just terrifying” because she was not allowed inside, per COVID-19 policy.
“I was sitting in my vehicle in the parking lot for nine hours, not knowing what was going on. And that was very hard, and very scary,” Amy Rollyson said.
“I can’t even sit in a room with him, or try to bring him any comfort, or see what he’s going through. So that was the hardest part of it, just feeling useless,” she said.
Amy Rollyson said many people mistakenly believe the coronavirus only impacts older folks.
“There are many young people who have died, or who have almost died. That statistic may be low in comparison to our population. That does not make it any less significant when it’s your child, or your friend, or your sibling," she said.
“That is still a person that somebody loves and cares about, and does not want to lose.”
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