ACCORDING to news reports, Texas ice hockey coach, Tyler Amburgey, who was 29-year-old and in great physical condition, died of complications from Covid-19 recently. The hockey coach had fallen ill just three days earlier. He assumed he had common cold, which he usually contracted in late summer from going back and forth between cold ice rinks and the Texas heat. The young father experienced nausea the first night, then over the next two days had other symptoms ranging from sleeplessness to shortness of breath to body aches and migraines.

On the third day, when his daughter went for her swimming lessons, his wife checked him and found him unresponsive. The coach did not know he had Covid-19. He was tested positive after his death.

As was found later, in an effort to get some rest during his illness, the coach had taken a sleeping tablet. According to the medical examiner, the pill combined with coronavirus in slowing down heart rate, eventually causing it to stop. Had he not taken the pill, he could have been alive, assuming the virus’s assault was low.

Based on this unfortunate episode, Covid-19 patients better avoid taking sleeping pills.

F. H. Mughal
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2020