A Story Of Youth, Hope And Loss - And The Mystery Of COVID-19

The doctors didn't know what to do.

Audrey, the incapacitated young woman in the ICU, had just celebrated her 29th birthday. She was physically fit and had been in perfect health. Just six months ago she ran a marathon with her twin sister Kelsey. And Audrey had always been health conscious; she worked as a transplant nurse in Denver, Colo.

The medical team—nine doctors working in unison with x-ray technicians, phlebotomists and nurses—could not explain why Audrey's heart was failing.

Audrey and Kelsey Ellis were born on March 17, 1991, in Berkeley, Calif. Audrey is exactly 10 minutes older. They referred to each other as "Wombie," short for wombmate. The two were inseparable in their youth and the only time Kelsey recalls fighting with her sister was on one occasion over clothes in middle school.