A young Adelaide woman in an induced coma in hospital is facing the possibility of losing her foot after a terrifying sequence of events which followed an overseas holiday, her partner says.
Aldinga couple Hayley Beadman and Ben Moore recently arrived back from a 16-day trip to Bali — their first since the pandemic — to the home in Adelaide's south they bought at the start of the year.
Upon their return, they both tested positive for COVID-19 and the following day, November 24, Hayley's condition deteriorated when she developed chest pains, prompting Ben to urgently ring for help.
"She started, like, a breathing fit [which] it looked like she wasn't in control of … like a convulsion," Mr Moore said.
"She couldn't control the breathing. I just immediately called the ambulance."
She was rushed to Flinders Medical Centre where emergency doctors worked to "get her heart started again", Mr Moore said.
"In the emergency room ... her heart stopped and they were working on her for 50 minutes," he said.
"I was pretty terrified. Shocked to the say the least."
Mr Moore said while the precise cause remains unclear, Ms Beadman — who was placed on an ECMO machine for cardiac and respiratory support — had been diagnosed with myocarditis linked to her COVID infection.
While the 24-year-old's condition is now stable, she remains heavily sedated in the hospital's intensive care unit, and is not able to verbally communicate with family.
Medication restricting blood flow to foot
Mr Moore said the medication she was being administered with had restricted her blood flow, meaning it was now possible she could lose her right foot.
"The drugs they give you to keep you alive, basically, constrict the blood vessels and your vital organs have large blood vessels and your feet and toes have really small ones," he said.
"The smaller ones then become a lot smaller, and it can cause them to close off or for the blood to stop flowing in those areas, and I believe that is what has happened to Hayley's foot."
He said while other explanations could not be ruled out, including that a vaccine had caused the heart inflammation or that there was "possibly an underlying condition", doctors believed COVID was the trigger.
"That's what they're leaning towards," he said.
University of South Australia epidemiologist Adrian Esterman said there was a well-established connection between heart problems and COVID.
"Although primarily it attacks the lungs, it can actually impact on any organ of the body, including the brain, and it can cause inflammation, it can cause micro blood clots, it can damage any organ," Professor Esterman said.
"One of the things that we know is that it can cause myocarditis."
Mr Moore said a nurse at Flinders had described Ms Beadman as "one of the sickest patients in Adelaide" — but he remains hopeful his partner will have emerged from the coma by Christmas.
"She is off the ECMO machine, which is good, it means her heart is recovering and we're moving in the right direction," he said.
"Do the right thing, wear a mask if you're in areas with lots and lots of people, you never know who has COVID and things like that. It can happen to anyone."
