Recovery Signs from Severe COVID-19 Lung Damage Revealed
According to researchers, some COVID-19 patients exhibited signs of recovery in the past two studies just a few weeks after they left the hospital.
The New York Times reported, when one of the patients, Annie Coissieux, tried standing up for the first time after weeks of stay in the hospital combatting COVID-19, "She could not get on her feet."
Recalling her stay inside the intensive care unit, Coissieux said, her first day after ICU, "I could not leave the chair without the help of two nurses."
From the Drome region in southeast France, the patient said she felt breathless and so tired after walking even just for a few minutes. It took her a lot of time and effort to go to the bathroom then.
78-year-old Coisseiux was reportedly sent to Dieulefit Santé, a pulmonary rehabilitation near her home, where a physical therapist taught her some breathing exercises as an approach in restoring her lungs, as well as the muscles engaged when breathing.
Three weeks after, when she went home, the older adult could already walk nearly 1,000 feet, although with support from a walker. She continued doing the exercises at home, and she became stronger.
A retired schoolteacher, Coisseiux, shared now, she can already walk 500 meters even without support from a walker. She also said she could even walk up the stairs at her cousin's house. Aside from that, the now-recovered patient also cycles using her indoor bike, and she swims, too.
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EMT Michelle Melo hangs an IV before she and fellow medics intubated a gravely-ill patient with COVID-19 symptoms at his home on April 06, 2020, in Yonkers, New York. The man, 92, was barely breathing when they arrived, and they performed rapid sequence intubation (RSI) on him before transporting him by ambulance to St. John's Riverside Hospital.
Damage to Lungs
Prolonged shortness of breath and reduced energy have dogged a lot of COVID-19 patients whose lungs were strongly hit by the virus.
Early in this global health crisis, doctors were apprehensive that COVID-19 might lead to irreversible damage resulting in lung fibrosis-developing scarring in which, according to the report, the "lung tissue continues to die" following the disappearance of the infection.
The World Health Organization said, around 80 percent of the patients experience mild to moderate symptoms, "while 15 percent develop a severe form of the illness, and roughly five percent worsen to a critical condition like the one Coissieux experienced.
While the worldwide or countrywide statistics on post-COVID lung recovery are not available yet, hospitals and clinics continue evaluating their cases.
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Survival Rate
According to a pulmonologist, Dr. Gabriel Lockhart, from the National Jewish Health, a Denver-based respiratory hospital, about 20 percent of the hospitalized patients with COVID-19 wound up in ICUs where a lot of them needed ventilators.
Dr. Lockhart, who also volunteered at New York City-based Mount Sinai Hospital, added, "Of the ones who get intubated, at least two-thirds" are likely to survive, although some physical therapy would be required.
Meanwhile, a pulmonologist at Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Jafar Abunasser said, it remains unknown how many people will recover to their pre-COVID-19 status as a lot of people are still recovering.
Dr. Abunasser also said one study of another coronavirus called SARS, which the journal, Chest published, found that more than 50 percent of survivors did not have any lung damage after one year. At the same time, one-third of them reported some abnormalities in their lungs, which he described as "mild."
During the pandemic this year, a few patients had severe lung impairment that they needed lung transplants, still considered a rarity globally.
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Oct 19, 2020 08:00 AM EDT
