24 April 2023 , 14:58
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A 52-year-old man who contracted Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic died two years after developing psychosis symptoms, his heartbroken wife said.
Natalie Barry and her husband Aaron Bazzone decided to quarantine at home after contracting coronavirus in 2020, with the man experiencing symptoms such as harsh fatigue and congestion.
But weeks after recovering, he started showing psychiatric symptoms that he had never experienced before, his wife said.
These included seeing demons, spending the night at hotels for four months as he feared his home in San Francisco was bugged as well as picking holes in his face as he thought aliens were implanting monitoring devices in him.
Tragically, last year on April 30 police arrived at Ms Barry's home to tell her that her husband's body had been found in an isolated mountain area.
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The woman, who described the period since contracting Covid as "two years of hell", believes Mr Bazzone died by suicide following his battle with psychosis.
Ms Barry told the Independent: "He was wielding an axe and knocking out people's lights around their houses because he was afraid of EMF [electric and magnetic fields] he claimed came from his phone and at night he had this ringing in his ears.."
A teacher from North Carolina experienced a similar psychotic break after recovering from Covid-19, his wife said.
Caitlin Hartley said her husband Jonathan was diagnosed with Covid psychosis despite doctors initially denying the possibility that the condition may be linked to the virus.
Mr Hartley told his wife he felt his mind was "running fast" and it seemed as if he "could see the future".
He then began therapy and was hospitalised multiple times, with his mental health struggling and his daughter developing "extreme anxiety" as a result of her dad's condition.
Speaking about her children, Mrs Hartley said: "Any time he left home, they freaked out. They’d say, ‘Daddy’s not coming back to us. Daddy’s not coming back.’ It was rough."
Mr Hartley said he is still grappling with the aftermath of his condition, one year and a half after developing it, and he now volunteers at local mental health facilities.
He said: "I'm kind of dealing with residual from it. I’ve been having a lot of anxiety and my therapist basically said I’m in survival mode.
"I was grateful to have somebody, [My wife] helped me. But there's a lot of people out there who don't have anybody and they're just stuck in the system."
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The treatment Mr Bazzone received, however, was different as Ms Barry said doctors dismissed her emphasis on the fact that her late husband's symptoms showed after Covid.
She said she knew she had changed overnight and no longer appeared to be the same person.
She added that in the last period of his life, they stayed in separate parts of their home as he battled his condition and was not nice to her, even though he told her "I love you" twice two weeks before he died.
Ms Barry added that when authorities showed up at her door in April 2022, she thought her husband had been committed as this had already happened before.
However, she was told he had died as a result of emphysema, a lung condition that causes shortness of breath, and emaciation.
The man's body was found in a remote area and his wife said she believes he starved himself to death.
A study published in the National Library of Medicine says coronavirus may cause a new onset of psychotic symptoms in some individuals with no psychiatric history, which is believed to be related to viral inflammation or infection of the nervous system.
A GoFundMe page was created to support Mr Bazzone's family after his death. You can donate here.