Filmmaker Nick Gthe, 52, met his fiance, Diana Berrent, 48, the founder ofSurvivor Corps, a COVID support and advocacy group, while mourning the loss of his wife, Heidi Ferrer, in May 2021. Determined to die on her own terms, the matriarch stopped eating and drinking. I mean, this is the first time in any of our collective experiences where you would get sick, dramatically so, and be told to not go to the doctor.. Gthe had flown to New York that month to attend a march across theBrooklyn Bridge to honor COVID victims. While they campaigned to bring awareness to the dangers of long COVID, they fell in love, Yahoo news reports. For the reception, the Gthes moved the celebration to Solidarity, a Polish restaurant in nearby Santa Monica. On March 30, Berrent visited Columbia University Irving Medical Center and became its first volunteer to be screened to donate antibodies that may help treat and save the lives of others. Ferrer, who contracted COVID-19 in April 2020, was unable to walk, eat, or even urinate without pain in the months leading up to her death. What started as a 'mostly asymptomatic coronavirus infection,' according to Gthe, escalated tofatigue, flu-like symptoms, brain fog, and body aches,including severe pains in her feet and ankles. @dianaberrent. Today, in her last installment, she's finally out of isolation and Berrent is still battling symptoms nearly seven months after experiencing her most severe illnesses with COVID-19. FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. 15:46 EDT 13 Jul 2022. The groups longer-term goal is to keep people informed on scientific developments surrounding immunity so that those who have recovered from COVID-19 can give back by donating their blood and plasma and by volunteering. Diana Berrent | LensCulture Diana Sonia Zicklin and Steven Keith Berrent, Cornell law students, are to be married today by Cantor Andrew Edison at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. We, as a community, can save lives. She recently received shocking news from the eye doctor who told her she has borderline glaucoma, a condition that can cause blindness. "That was critical," Diana says. Thank you! diana berrent husband The filmmaker (who knew of Survivor Corps through Heidi), leaned on Diana for support amid his grief. Nick Gthe says Survivor Corps founder Diana Berrent gave him a safe harbor to grieve in the weeks and months after Heidi Ferrers death. The couple got close almost 18 months after Nick's late wife, Dawson's Creek writer Heidi Ferrer, ended her life in May 2021. Berrent highlighted the challenges, knowledge gaps and lack of available testing, discussing emerging pandemic solutions and pathways to care, all while reducing the shame and stigma associated by those infected. Their wedding is to take place this fall in California on November 12. And I came to love her for exactly who she was: Daring, passionate and yet tenderly affectionate. Stricken with what was then an especially scary, stigmatized, and unknown disease, the Port Washington, N.Y., photographer went public with her case, penning a daily Coronavirus Diary for the New York Post in an effort to demystify and advance understanding of the disease. The Long Haul: A Conversation With Diana Berrent | TPR Terry Bradshaw's Daughter Rachel Is Married! Nick and Diana Gthe with their children (L-R): Bexon, Zelda and Spencer. There's nothing out there. LI's Diana Berrent On Fortune's World's 50 Greatest Leaders List All rights reserved. Berrent is still. ", Ultimately, the couple feels that their special day was a huge success. Erica Tempesta For Dailymail.com We watch the sunset there almost every night we can," Diana, 48, the founder of the COVID-19 advocacy group Survivor Corps, tells PEOPLE. , updated Serena McMahonadapted it for the web. After attending a meeting with eight other people in early March, during which there was no physical contact, she developed what she believed were symptoms of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Be the first to get hottest news from our Editor-in-Chief, Check your email and confirm your subscription. Coronavirus patient describes symptoms, test struggles (It wasn't hard to notice Mr. Berrent, Ms. Zicklin said, ''because Woody Allen films are sparsely attended in Nashville.'') Then the two of us went out to dinner in the East Village," Diana says. 'It seems like a strange thing to say, but the way that everything happened was so extreme, so violent, so beyond what I would ever wish on my worst enemy, to have to go through what I went through, what my son went through.'. [It was] a really intense day. Partnered with Indiana University, the group conducted a survey of symptoms and found members reported 98 different ailments from COVID-19 thats eight times more symptoms than what the CDC has listed. 'Within six weeks of noticing "COVID toes" and some gastrointestinal issues she could barely walk from excruciating nerve pain in her feet so extreme as to mimic advanced diabetic neuropathy,' he wrote. So she formed the online group Survivor Corps, where members document their symptoms, donate plasma, raise money for treatment and research, and provide support. Courtesy of Diana Berrent Survivor Corps' current mission is to find and report on research, screening and donation opportunities for survivors, as well as to connect those in need with people who can help. Nick Gthe says Survivor Corps founder Diana Berrent gave him a "safe harbor . I'm not a religious person, but it smacks of someone looking down on me. Music, like the song that they chose for their first dance, "Delicate / Lost in Japan" by Megan Davies, is central to their romance. While still in isolation and recovering in her bedroom, Berrent launched an open Facebook support group called 'Survivor Corps' on March 24, 2020. The list of its authors can be seen in its historicaland/or the page Edithistory:Diana Berrent. Robin Young Twitter Co-Host, Here & NowRobin Young brings more than 25 years of broadcast experience to her role as host of Here & Now. MSNBC Maddow (Feb. 17, 2021) - Focus on vaccines overlooks life-saving Monoclonal Antibody therapies. What therapeutics?" 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The ceremony comes 18 months after his late wife, Dawsons Creek writer Heidi Ferrer, died after suffering from long COVID. She has watched every video that Heidi put on YouTube. "In the last few weeks," Nick says, "she was really worried that there was only one trajectory, and it was ending up in a wheelchair, unable to bathe herself, unable to do anything.". We are no longer accepting comments on this article. As the two campaigned to bring awareness to the dangers of long COVID, they fell in love. The same impulse led her, while still in isolation, to start Survivor Corps, a Facebook page that has since swelled into a community of more than 165,000 people who have experienced COVID. Engraved inside Diana's engagement ring and Nick's rose gold wedding band is the same phrase, "My love is increasing." Ms. Zicklin was new to Nashville and lonely, and also upset because her father had serious heart problems. She increased my expectations for what the rest of my life could be.'. Dawson's Creek Writer's Husband Finds Love with Long COVID Activist Nassau County is a really big place. It goes against everything we do and believe in." (Courtesy) This article is more than 2 years old. Diana Berrent was one of the first people in her area to test positive for COVID-19. They're going in with severe medical conditions and they're being told that they're having an anxiety attack, she says. '', ''It's rather cosmic that I met Steven at a time when my father was dying,'' the bride said reflectively. COVID-19 survivor launches plasma donor group to 'help contribute to Filmmaker Nick Gthe, 52, is engaged to Diana Berrent, 48, following the loss of his late wife, Heidi Ferrer, in May 2021 Ferrer, a television and film screenwriter, struggled with a range of . And since most of them are long-haulers, membership hasnt dwindled in size since Berrent created the group in March. All Rights Reserved. Diana Zicklin Berrent is the founder of Survivor Corps, a grassroots advocacy group focused on mobilizing in support of COVID-19 patients. "She needs to be here," he remembers her saying. Long-haul Covid: Clinics are springing up around the country | CNN We dont have time on our hands, people are dying, and if the answers to this virus lie in the bodies of survivors, we need to create a platform to efficiently match survivors to research institutes so they can get direct access to us and we can create an expediency to the process.. What if we gathered all of the other people [who have survived the coronavirus] to do that?. ', 'She gave me permission to feel real happiness and joy again,' he said. The couple knew they wanted to get married after they gotmatching lightning bolt tattoos during one of her trips to Los Angeles in November. Sept 25 Right Now with Diana Berrent. ', 'Run the World' 's Bresha Webb Is Married! Meanwhile, Nick wore the cufflinks that Diana's father wore to her parents' February 1964 wedding. '', On Saturday of that first week, they had both made plans to see the Woody Allen film ''Small Time Crooks,'' and fell into conversation beforehand when they ran across each other outside the theater. In the immediate aftermath, one of the people Nick leaned on for support was Diana, a 48-year-old mother of two and the founder of Survivor Corps, a COVID support and advocacy group. During that time, she had an idea. President Trump knew in February that the coronavirus was deadly and worse than the flu, even though publicly he downplayed the virus severity, according to journalist Bob Woodwards new book. "Nothing. Meanwhile, back in New York, her mother was in the final stages of terminal cancer. TV & Broadcast mentions Survivor Corps A regularly updated list of ways to participate in research studies is pinned at the top of the groups Facebook page. The bride, 28, was a scheduler in 1999 and 2000 in the White House office of Vice President Al Gore. Diana Berrent has been trying to navigate her recovery from the coronavirus all while quarantined at her Port Washington, New York, home in a separate room from her two school-age children.. Diana gently explained that there wasn't much he could have done to relieve his wife's symptoms. Of course, we dont know how long that immunity will last, Berrent said. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Long COVID Report Providing Insights and Opportunities to Support Patient Community, It's Boston local news in one concise, fun and informative email. 2023 Fortune Media IP Limited. How a mom with coronavirus is parenting while quarantined - New York Post Now theyre engaged. When she attended that same meeting a week later, this time digitally via Zoom, and learned others were sick too, she was even more convinced. She had bought a 10-gallon cowboy hat there after drowning her sorrows at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. Berrent has one thing to say to those who think the coronavirus is a hoax: Just stop by the Survivor Corps website for evidence. After the film, they went to a nearby bar, where they discovered that they were both avid amateur photographers and that they had lived only a few blocks from each other in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood in Washington. Nick Gthe and Survivor Corps founder Diana Berrent have fallen in love. His long drives between Los Angeles and Ojai, California where he and Bex were temporarily staying with his mother while they tried to rebuild their lives gave them ample opportunity to chat. Berrent realized early on that there were other long-haulers like her a third of people whove had the coronavirus but were not sick enough to be hospitalized are enduring long-term effects, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. As she struggled with the ways long-haul COVID-19 ravaged her body, the former Dawson's Creek screenwriter killed herself. A grief-stricken Nick reached out to her via direct message, and soon they connected by phone. Three weeks after the resolution of her symptoms, she was Participant #0001 in Columbia Universitys clinical trial to recruit survivors to donate their blood and plasma. At first, they spoke about Ferrer and her symptoms, science and what they knew about long COVID thus far. Diana Berrent is screened for antibodies after recovering from COVID-19. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free weekly newsletter to get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday. You know, [my experience is] not really a scalable solution for the world, she said, but it left her feeling hopeful that in sharing the results, she might at least help mitigate the spread of the virus in her community. By clicking on SUBSCRIBE, you consent to our Privacy Policy. She wanted to know her and understand her". In March 2020, she was one of the first on Long Island, NY to contract COVID-19. In March 2020, she was one of the first on Long Island, NY to contract COVID-19. Berrentassured him that he 'didn't miss anything,' insisting there wasn't anything else he could have done to relieve her symptoms. Berrent was vocal about her struggles and the confusion during this early phase of the pandemic. Our collective power could truly help stem the tide of this pandemic and assist in the national recovery. She fought off the infection at home, treating herself with Tylenol and Gatorade.After 18 days in self isolation, she was fine, she thought.Turns out, like many people infected with COVID-19, she's a long-hauler. The way I see it right now, Survival Corps is the epicenter of hope.. I had just recently photographed an event at a local elementary school in a gymnasium that was packed with children and their families moving around in close quarters. The Mail | The New Yorker She barely slept two hours a night due to random internal tremors that startled her awake. Diana Berrent, Marcus Tomoff, Eli Musser, Marjorie Roberts, share their experiences with the ups and downs of relentless COVID symptoms, how the virus has impacted their life, and also their struggles with getting medical care. And being with Nick. By Schools and businesses were still open at that point. She is a daughter of Carole Zicklin of Manhattan and the late Robert Zicklin. Berrent's Coronavirus Diary video blogs helped kick start a national dialogue about the symptoms and testing struggles associated with COVID-19. It's a vow that Diana already adept at connecting journalists with people impacted by COVID-19 was more than able to help him fulfill. Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 466: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). For suicide prevention resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, clickhere. From the moment she came down with COVID-19 in early March 2020, Diana Berrent has been out front in Americas pandemic. Diana Berrent is a COVID-19 long-hauler, which is a person who suffers from debilitating medical issues even after their tests show they no longer carry the coronavirus. The group currently has over 20,000 members. It feels like a lifetime ago but it was only three weeks ago, said Berrent, who lives in Nassau County, New York. Their chats became daily, morphing into three, four hours at a time. It's taken from the song "Mt Hood," by Doc Robinson, which was one of the many songs they shared with each other via Spotify when they fell in love. Its the type of center that needs to be replicated everywhere, she says. 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