Healthy 26yo Marathon Runner Killed By COVID

Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

This 26-year-old marathon runner has died after contracting the coronavirus despite having no underlying medical conditions.

Lawyer Mauricio Kazuhiro Suzuki died on 28th March 10 days after first showing symptoms of COVID-19 in the city of Sao Paulo in the south-eastern Brazilian state of the same name.

The 26-year-old had reportedly sent a message to his boss on 18th March saying he could not go to work because he had a cold and he went to the Cruz Azul hospital with his mother.

Newsflash/@mauricioksuzuki

Reports state the doctors told him he had a flu and he was prescribed medicine to combat it. However, as he was worried about the coronavirus he did not return home with his elderly parents but instead went to live with his sister and her husband.

As he had not improved the following day he went back to the hospital where a tomography showed he had strong signs that he had been infected with COVID-19, but as his condition was good he was sent home to rest.

Four days later he was taken to an Intensive Care Unit with serious breathing issues, and his condition reportedly worsened before he died after five days in the unit.

Suzuki was reportedly healthy and local media report he was a keen runner who participated in long-distance races and marathons.

His sister Simone told reporters that the doctors has been surprised with the case as her brother had not been considered ‘at-risk’ and had no pre-existing conditions.

He reportedly had high levels of uric acid in his blood but he took medication to control this and it was not considered a problem.

Simone, who described her brother’s death as “shocking as it gave no time for us to process,” said she is now in the hospital with her two parents as they are showing symptoms of COVID-19 and are awaiting the results of tests.

One of the victim’s cousins, who has not been named in reports, wrote on social media: “I want to leave an alert about this ‘little flu’. Please be sensible and don’t fall into ‘vertical isolation’ (of only isolating those at risk). You don’t want to go through what I and my family are going through.”

His friend Pedro Kuchminski said: “He was a well-loved person, with a huge heart, very intelligent and very determined.”

There have been 4,661 cases of COVID-19 in Brazil with 127 deaths according to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University

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