On October 8, Gereon Dahlgren was in the booth and trained Linköping against HV71.
Then he felt pressure on his heart and something was wrong:
After nearly eight weeks on sick leave, he’s back now and is part of the team driving through the junior toilet.
At the beginning of October, Linköping’s assistant coach, Jerion Dahlgren, was affected by the coronavirus. With only mild symptoms and a negative test a few days later, he’s back in the cabin already for the away meeting with HV71.
But during the match, Dahlgren felt that all was not right.
– I stood in the booth and felt: “Damn it, nothing good, my heart hurts.” When you get to the heart, you feel anxious. You don’t care if it’s the knee or the foot, but the heart.. Is it a heart attack or what?
He completed the game and took “a few pills” afterwards, but the pain in his heart didn’t go away during the bus ride home to Linköping – and at night the LHC coach opted to go to the emergency room.
He stayed there for three days, and after a number of tests were carried out, it was found that he was suffering from myocarditis. The plan was for him to return to the booth after the national team break in November, but this did not happen.
The body didn’t respond in the right way at all, and Jeroen Dahlgren described the first four weeks as “incredibly heavy”.
– Every day when I woke up I felt like I was really drunk.
The combination of covid infection and myocarditis led to the excretion of the body.
– He did not respond at all while I felt: Damn it, I have to get back to work. In our industry, you can’t stay away for long, you won’t have work left. That’s how it works, Dahlgren says.
He turned when he got a new drug
He says there were many thoughts running through his head during these difficult weeks:
– Is it over now? Can I go back, should I quit training, do something else?
You think you will not be able to continue?
– I sure did. Doctors have poor background information about this combination with covid and heart disease and could not give any clear information.
But shortly after the tough four weeks, things turned around. Gereon Dahlgren had to run new tests and was given different drugs and suddenly the body started responding in the right way.
On November 28 it was announced that he was in good health and for the previous two weeks had been on the ice and coached the Linköping juniors.
But he hasn’t stood in a hockey booth since Oct. 8 when he now boards the plane to Canada. In his position in Halifax, he will assist national team captain Magnus Havild during the junior toilet tournament.
– It will be very interesting, I have now rested for two months and need to start. I’m more excited. At the same time, I definitely gained perspective. You want a hell of a lot when you’re healthy, but when you’re sick you only want one thing, and that’s to get better, says Gereon Dahlgren.
