Laveen bodybuilder dealing with lifestyle changes months after bout with COVID-19
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Laveen, AZ (KPHO) — A Laveen bodybuilder is learning how to live with a dramatic lifestyle change after he was infected with COVID-19 in March. His bout with the illness came before a lot was known about the virus in Arizona.
Charlie Aragon, 35, nearly died, and the pictures of him before and after COVID-19 are pretty unbelievable. Aragon is a bodybuilder, and had been training for bodybuilding competitions before he became ill.
“I never thought in my life that I would ever be on a ventilator fighting for my life,” Aragon said.
His symptoms began in mid-March. They were mild at first, with a loss of smell and taste, but a medical clinic just gave him ibuprofen and an inhaler.
By April 2, he was in the ICU.
By April 4, he was on a ventilator.
“During this time I had respiratory failure, blood clots, pneumonia, I had sepsis, so I came down with a whole lot of complications,” he said.
Aragon’s life had dramatically turned in a matter of weeks.
He went from being incredibly healthy and working out six days a week, to lying in a hospital bed for nearly a month.
“I was up to 250 (lbs) when I got admitted, and COVID-19 brought me down to 190,” Aragon said. “I lost a lot of my muscle mass, a lot of everything I’ve worked hard for.”
The “before” and “after” pictures of him are telling: a completely different person after barely surviving the virus and still recovering now.
“I’m still seeing cardiologists. I’m going to see my pulmonary care specialist and doing blood work, so my road isn’t over yet,” Aragon said.
He said bodybuilding can wait, but somebody who needed him right away was his five-year-old son.
“I made a promise that I would never leave him. He said, ‘Dad would you ever leave me?’ And I said, ‘No, son, I promise I’ll never leave you,’” Aragon recalled. “By the grace of God I was able to make it out of this and I truly believe I was given a second chance at life.”
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