♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, covid warriors. >> dizziness, pure dizziness. >> some of the first patients still battling baffling aftereffects. >> my chest pain is always there. i have trouble taking a deep breath. >> in sickness and in health, vows to vanquish the virus. >> i won't be the same. >> and the doctor turned detective trying to solve the medical mysteries. plus black mamba forever. >> one of the greatest players to play the game. >> remembering kobe one year after that fateful day. now a look at his unfinished legacy champing women's basketball. did you know prilosec otc can stop frequent heartburn

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♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight the world reaching 100 million covid infections. president biden looking to buy enough vaccine to inoculate nearly every american by summer. but for some of those who have survived the fight of their life, there's still a real struggle that can be nagging, chronic, and ever-present.

here's abc's janai norman. >> reporter: shayna is one of the survivors, sick for weeks after contracting covid last march, but thought she was turning the corner by may. >> all of a sudden, later into june, early july, i just had a slew of new symptoms. severe muscle pain to the point that some days i didn't feel that i could walk, my legs hurt so bad. >> reporter: the once fun-loving 26-year-old found herself here months after her initial diagnosis at the mt. sinai center for post covid care in new york city, undergoing tests and treatment for persistent covid symptoms. >> i felt like no one was taking me seriously before, and because there was no founded, historical, medical evidence of covid long haul, i didn't feel like i ever had a voice that people would listen to. >> so for you, what does a good day look like? >> not having to nap. taking a walk down the block without needing to recover afterwards.

it's tiny victories for me at this point. >> reporter: shayna is one of a growing number of people suffering from acute post covid syndrome. they're being called long haulers, people still experiencing debilitating symptoms long after having covid. in the u.s., over 25 million people, 1 in every 13 americans, has tested positive for covid-19. studies now estimating that about 10% of those patients have experienced long-term symptoms. >> it's impossible for me to go through and name every different system that can be affected, and patients can still be experiencing issues with. fatigue, headaches, cognitive dysfunction, exercise intolerance, shortness of breath, feelings of temperature irregularities. >> reporter: the virus and its lingering effects, indiscriminate. >> there is times where i felt like i was going to die. >> reporter: from a 28-year-old soccer coach in connecticut unable to get out of bed. >> dizziness, pure dizziness for

six or seven months. >> reporter: 13-year-old maggie flanery. she contracted the virus last spring along with the rest of her family. her parents and two brothers quickly recovered, but maggie is still dealing with symptoms. >> very lightheaded. my appetite has definitely decreased. >> yeah, and her chest. >> my chest pain is always there. and i have trouble taking a deep breath. >> reporter: in cartersville, georgia, sean evans is still feeling the pain triggered by a positive covid-19 diagnosis. how do you feel today? >> i'm okay. i feel a lot better than yesterday. but yeah, i feel okay. >> yesterday was tough? >> yeah, i had dialysis yesterday. those days are usually a little bit harder. >> reporter: sean says the virus not only attacked his lungs, but also his kidneys. >> dialysis is really hard on your body. and one of the worst things is muscle cramps. and it's something i've never felt before. sometimes they get so bad to

where it's really painful. >> covid, it's like playing russian roulette. because you never know if it's just going to be mild symptoms or if you're going to end up on a respirator. >> reporter: it was early march when shaun and sarah were in the midst of planning her summer wedding. dreams of walking down the aisle postponed after the 40-year-old father of two began experiencing the telltale signs of covid. >> it got so bad to where i couldn't even walk. i had all kinds of coughing, lost my sense of taste, smell. >> reporter: for a week he ignored the symptoms, but knowing he suffered from high blood pressure and diabetes, shaun finally rushed to the emergency room. >> once i went in the hospital, they diagnosed me with pneumonia, the flu, covid, and the main thing, you know, was my kidneys. >> kidney failure.

>> it shut my kidneys down completely. >> you feel like what you're dealing with today is still tied, all of it, back to when you got covid last year? >> oh, yeah. yeah. this is a little more of the process of getting hooked up to dialysis. >> reporter: almost a year later, his life upended and forever changed. he receives dialysis three times a week. each exhausting session four hours long. shaun is now also awaiting a kidney transplant. >> i won't be the same. i mean, you know, even once i get a kidney, even with a transplant, they only last about, what, 15 to 20 years? if someone were to donate a live kidney. >> play those math numbers. what do we do when you're 60? >> i'll be looking for another kidney, or going back on dialysis again. >> reporter: one medical journal citing approximately 40% of covid-19 patients reported temporary kidney damage. and while data is sparse and

widely varies, another study reporting recovery rate is high, reporting 80% of survivors fully regained kidney function. the full scope of the virus' long-term effects remains unknown. for people like diana behrendt -- >> taking medications on a daily basis? >> no. >> reporter: she believes part of unraveling the mystery lies in making sure we have accurate and up-to-date data. behrendt fell victim to the virus in early march at a time when covid was still incredibly new. >> i just knew it, even though the first person in all of new york city had only been diagnosed 12 days earlier. i knew that this was it. >> hi, it's friday -- >> reporter: realizing the lack of available information -- >> hi, everyone -- >> reporter: behrendt started posting video diaries of her experience to educate others as she quarantined. >> the road to recovery is not necessarily a straight line. it's kind of like, one step

forward, one step back. >> reporter: encouraged by the following she gained, behrendt decided to launch "survivor corps," a nonprofit dedicating to crowd sourcing information from its members. >> no data has been collected on the vast majority of patients like me who had what i call the tylenol and gatorade variety of covid. what that meant is people needed this group to reach out to one another, to share information, and as a result we ended up sitting on the largest data set on nonhospitalized patients in the world. >> reporter: barrent hopes the data her organization provides will help other covid long haulers. >> we are designing what we think is best practices to create a foundation for a pathway to recovery for what a post-covid care center should look like. ba works what doesn't work. >> reporter: despite the growing number of people struggling with long-term effects, there are still 19 states without

post-covid care centers. >> the health care burden that we're going to face because of individuals that are requiring so much care with this condition is enormous. >> reporter: dr. dana mccarthy is a rehab physician at mt. sinai in new york. she's been treating patients at the mt. sinai center for post-covid care, the largest of its kind in the country, while experiencing resaidial effects herself. >> every time i attempt to try to exercise, i get crushing fatigue and very severe headaches. so although i have those issues at present, there are many who are suffering much worse. >> when you first started seeing patients coming to you with these sort of symptoms, were they second guessing themselves and having anxiety about whether what they were feeling was real and whether it was connected to covid? >> 100%. at the beginning, you know, we were still in the height of the en epidemic, pandemic in new york, and people were still being

hospitalized. those who weren't were left to their own devices, on the outside, not having access to care. when symptoms were prolonged, and they were having workups and things would come back negative, they'd be sent home. their primaries didn't know what to do with it. it became a rhetoric of, it's all in your head, unfortunately. >> reporter: despite the initial difficulty some had, centers like mt. sinai and others like it have been life savers for long haulers. and the patients that you're seeing, are they getting better? >> they are, yeah. it's just very slow. extremely slow. and the problem is, people trying to understand what it takes for them to get better. it's one, hearing it. two, processing. then committing to actually having to change your lifestyle. >> reporter: for shaun and wife sarah, life has been full of changes, including last summer when the couple made good on their promise to one another and got married, a silver lining for a family with a renewed appreciation for life and each

moment spent together. >> every second, you know, she has to put up with me every day, but you know, it means a lot more. you know. getting to be with the people you love. because you're not promised tomorrow. you know? when something like that does happen to you, you really realize what they mean to you. you know, you don't want them to doubt how much you truly care for them. >> our thanks to janai. coming up, how kobe bryant propelled women's basketball and inspired girl dads around the world. my plaque psoriasis... ...the itching ...the burning. the stinging. my skin was no longer mine. my psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen... painful. emerge tremfyant™ with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks.

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♪ today marks the one-year anniversary kobe bryant, his daughter gianna, and seven other passengers were killed in a helicopter crash in southern california. makeshift memorials around los angeles offering tributes to all we lost that day. tonight a look at the espn special and the lasting legacy of the black mamba. here's maria taylor. >> once upon a time, there was a young basketball player who had dreams of becoming one of the greatest basketball players of all time. >> now kobe, oh, he is hard to believe! >> welcome to the kobe show. >> i've decided to skip college and take my talent to the nba. >> kobe bryant, 18-year-old rookie! >> how good is this kid? >> he works day and night, every day, for years and years and

years and years and years. >> we finally got a championship. >> two back! >> that's three, that's three. >> on to the next one. >> kobe bryant, one of the greatest players to play the game. >> as time went on, what you come to realize is the most important thing is how your career touches those around you. >> he said, i'm a girl dad. i would have five more girls if i could. >> this is our greatest. he was the one who was providing legitimacy to our game. >> if i can inspire athletes to do something epic. to me, that's success. north star, to always inspire. that's what makes true greatness. >> what defines a legacy? is it stats? championships? a mindset? kobe bryant had it all. but for women's basketball, perhaps the most important thing

he left behind is inspiration. >> as a wnba player, every day we face so many stigmas and stereotypes, that entire narrative that women are less than, women don't deserve visibility. that was going away with kobe simply walking into an arena and cheering us on. >> he came to a lot of our gains, he was at oar all-star game last year. he went to uconn games, he was at an oregon game. kobe was like, how do you get fans in seats? he was known for sponsoring elite women's athletes in the wnba. i think kobe's legacy helps us be more innovative around that. >> what can i say? mamba out. >> i think the minute he was finished playing, it was, okay, i took everything out of this game that i could possibly take, how do i help other players get better? this incredible amount of women's basketball players had a chance to work with him. and they came away thinking, he's a fan, and he wants us to get better, and he stays in

contact with you. hey, i watched you play the other night. who does that? he did. >> this was a second act for kobe. why would he say to adam silver, i don't want to talk about the nba, i want to talk about the wnba, and i want to meet the new commissioner. and i'm six weeks into the job. >> it was in his dna to try to be great at everything. i think we only saw it through the lens of basketball for so long. he was like, okay, i'm transitioning from giving my all on the court to giving my all through different mediums to my daughters. >> him being able to coach his team and have his daughter on that team i think was huge for him. he wanted to be the best father, but also the best coach that he could. i think through his daughter, he was able to do that. >> as we learn to accept what the sports world is like without him, one thing is certain. kobe bryant may have just been scratching the surface. and his legacy will continue to ignite the popularity of women's

hoops. >> he wanted to do more. he wanted to get more involved. he wanted to expand mamba academy and dig deeper into it and just add more layers to it. in that area, with those kids, the imprint is immeasurable. you know, they don't remember as much kobe the guy fist pumping because he just won an nba championship. they remember him sitting on the bench trying to get them to be better, or him being at practice trying to show them something. >> he's always respected and co-signed our game. after he retired, we started piecing it together like, this is our greatest male ally. him coming to our games, him bringing his daughter, has truly helped our game grow in ways we didn't even imagine. and it's unfortunate that we recognize this once it's gone. but the beautiful thing is that now we have so many people that should be warriors and people that want to carry on his legacy

forever. and that's the beauty in the tragedy. >> if you guys can understand that, then i'm doing my job as a father. >> kobe was the mvp of girl dads. he taught them how to be brave and how to keep pushing forward when things get tough. he would sing them silly songs and continue making them laugh. he loved being gianna's basketball coach. >> our youngest, gianna, is 12, she's practicing playing

basketball every single day. >> one dribble stepback. that should be labeled unfair. >> i asked if he wanted more children. and without hesitation he said, "i would have five more girls if i could." "i'm a girl dad." >> if i had the power to turn back time, i would never use it. i'd think about it. because then every moment that you go through means absolutely nothing because you could always go back and do it again so it loses its flavor, it loses its beauty. things are final, you know moments won't ever come again. >> you can stream the full sportscenter special "kobe, the legend, the legacy" on the espn app. up next, rescuing man's best friend.

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♪ finally tonight, no friend left behind.

>> come on, buddy, come on. >> smoky is a lucky dog. trapped after a deadly ef-3 tornado tore through fultondale, alabama, last night, scared and shivering in the basement of his home where he and his owner sought shelter from the store. lots of debris on top of old smoky. family reaching and rescuing him today. it was american wildlife photographer roger karus who said, dogs aren't our whole lives, but they do make our lives whole. that's "nightline" for this evening. thanks for the company, america. good night. ♪ ♪ it's the brand new chicken dance song uh ♪ ♪ get down heat it up lik♪ ♪ spin around one time if you wanna ♪ new chicken dance new chicken sandwich my juicy, thickest fillet yet. my cluck sandwich combos. only at jack in the box.