Kent Taylor, the CEO of the international restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse, took his own life last week after battling post-COVID symptoms, his family said according to the Washington Post. His body was found Thursday in a field on family property outside Louisville, Kentucky.
“After a battle with post-COVID related symptoms, including severe tinnitus, Kent Taylor took his own life this week,” his family said in a statement shared with the Post. “Kent battled and fought hard like the former track champion that he was, but the suffering that greatly intensified in recent days became unbearable.”
Taylor reported suffered from a intense form of tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears, which is common in people who have been exposed to dangerous loud noises and can worsen after someone battles COVID. Worsened tinnitus is one of a range of symptoms suffered by people with “long COVID,” a lingering and largely mysterious condition impacting between 10-30% of people who have survived coronavirus infection.
According to a study recently published in the medical journal Frontiers in Public Health, 40% of people who reported having tinnitus prior to contracting coronavirus said the conditioned worsened with the infection.