Patients who survived COVID-19

The next coming months will be full of new updates on coronavirus spread. Patients who have been hospitalized with severe COVID-19 are breathing for weeks with the help of a mechanical ventilator. Many of them are likely to be affected by the long-term effects of the virus and the emergency treatments that allow them to survive it.

“The problem with all of them in the coming months is how we’re going to help these patients recover,” said Lauren Ferrante, a pulmonary and sensitive care physician at Yale School of Medicine. Hospital practices that make patients as healthy and active as possible increase their chances of recovery. But many doctors in the intensive care unit say that the pressure of epidemics on hospitals and the infectious nature of the virus is making some of these methods difficult.

Coronavirus targets the lungs, but a lack of oxygen and extensive inflammation can damage the kidneys, liver, heart, brain, and other organs.

Patients in an ICU, regardless of their illness, are more likely to develop a range of physical, cognitive, and mental health problems after leaving.

Other concerns about coronavirus

Patients who have been living on a ventilator for a long time are more likely to develop atrophy and muscle weakness. Keeping a patient’s needs to help them, and eventually helping them sit, stand, and walk can reduce this muscle weakness and get them out of the ventilator faster. “Because SARS-CoV-2 is so contagious, it can be difficult to bring rehabilitation specialists to patients’ rooms”.

Another risk for hospitalized patients is delirium – confusing thinking can lead to long-term cognitive impairments such as memory impairment. The virus is partly to blame. Doctors believe that this coronavirus, like those caused by acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome, can directly penetrate and damage the brain. And the body’s inflammation from the virus can also restrict blood flow to the brain and destroy brain cells.

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