(Bethany Ao, Aubrey Whelan/ The Philadelphia Inquirer) — In July, Erica Rodriguez, 20, checked herself into the Renfrew Center, a residential center for eating-disorder treatment in the Philadelphia area. Rodriguez, who has been struggling with disordered eating since she was 12, had relapsed in quarantine.
“It had gotten to the point that I was feeling a bad physical toll,” she said. “The day before I decided to go, it was getting hard to breathe. I would stand up and feel super dizzy and faint. It felt like I was having a panic attack because my heart was beating so fast all the time.”
After five days at the Renfrew Center, staff members recommended she complete eight weeks of inpatient treatment.
But that changed the very next day. Rodriguez was told that she had to leave the center immediately because a staff member she had been in contact with had tested positive for COVID-19. She was told that she could come back in two weeks if she tested negative but that the facility could not guarantee her a bed.(…)