Writer With Long-Haul COVID Dies by Suicide

Heidi Ferrer struggled with symptoms for 13 months, husband says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 18, 2021 4:32 AM CDT
Updated Jun 18, 2021 6:30 AM CDT
Writer With Long-Haul COVID Dies by Suicide
Heidi Ferrer carries a sign during a protest against gun violence in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, Feb. 19, 2018.   (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Screenwriter Heidi Ferrer will not be recorded in official statistics as a coronavirus casualty, but her husband believes she would be alive today if she hadn't suffered from long-haul COVID. The 50-year-old Dawson's Creek writer died by suicide last month after 13 months spent struggling with symptoms, husband Nick Guthe disclosed on her Girl to Mom blog, per the Hollywood Reporter. "The excruciating physical pain and inability to sleep from the pain led Heidi to the decision she would rather leave this world on her own terms before her condition worsened more," Guthe wrote. In a tweet, he described Ferrer as an "amazing mother" to their 13-year-old son. "She fought this insidious disease with the same ferocity she lived with," he wrote. "I love you forever and I'll see you down the road."

In a blog post last September, Ferrer said she was recovering from long-haul COVID after experiencing symptoms she described as "a roulette wheel of horrors" and almost giving up hope—but by May this year, she was "bedridden and in constant physical pain, suffering from severe neurological tremors and numerous other worsening symptoms," Deadline reports. She "never would have made this decision if not for her intense suffering" from long-haul COVID, Guthe wrote, adding that the mental strain of long COVID sufferers "is a public health crisis that must be addressed quickly." Ferrer's other work included the 2008 Paris Hilton film The Hottie & the Nottie and the ABC telefilm Princess. Guthe asked her supporters to consider making a donation in her memory to the Infantile Scoliosis Outreach Program. (More obituary stories.)

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