Fairbanks resident Greg Finstad was one of the first people in Alaska diagnosed with COVID-19. He says the disease almost killed him and he’s still recovering.
Finstad’s story was first featured in the Alaska Science Forum, a publication by UAF’s Geophysical Institute.
It might be surprising to some that it hit Finstad so hard: He went from his peak of fitness, training for the Boston Marathon, to flat on his back gasping for air as the coronavirus took hold of his lungs.
It started when Finstad, who manages the University of Alaska Fairbanks’s reindeer research program, flew to Washington to help his elderly mom. He was back in Alaska at his family cabin when he first noticed symptoms.
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Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Casey here.
