"A Los Angeles Fire Department crew, amid a sleepless 24-hour shift, gives a report to a County-USC emergency physician on the ambulance ramp." (Dr. Scott Kobner / Los Angeles Times)
The effects of Covid-19 can last for weeks in what might be called the "ordinary" or mild case.
"Long haulers," as I understand the term, refers to people who have contracted a severe case of Covid and have lingering effects for many weeks. This seems to me to be different from the description of people who are in the group which have had these severe effects, have been released from the hospital, and yet need rehab long after they have already suffered things like life-threatening organ failure or nerve damage.
"While resuscitating a patient in cardiac arrest, Dr. Molly Grassini stares at the cardiac monitor during a pulse check, hoping her patient shows any signs of life." (Dr. Scott Kobner / Los Angeles Times)
In severe cases, even after "surviving" a stay in the Intensive Care Unit being treated for Covid, many people need long-term rehabilitation. Some people experience atrophied muscles, or damage to their kidneys or lungs. This may require physical rehab because people with these conditions have a hard time leaving home or even getting out of bed.
Other people come "away" from a stay in ICU in the hospital for Covid, with cognitive issues, even psychological/behavioral changes such as loss of memory, depression, or anxiety.
There is even a term for this condition: PICS or post-intensive care syndrome. It applies particularly to hospitalized Covid patients who may have spent a lot of their time in the ICU on ventilators, under sedation, or have experienced pneumonia turn into acute respiratory distress (extreme difficulty breathing, a syndrome known as ARDS).
"Nurse Doris Roldan, right, reaches for a dose of epinephrine as nurse Jeremy Hill performs CPR and Dr. Ruben Guzman prepares to intubate a patient dying of COVID-19." (Dr. Scott Kobner / Los Angeles Times)
The natural feelings of any person in such a situation, having already "conquered" the illness only to realize that it has left its mark on you physically or psychologically or both, have got to include anger tinged with perhaps a sense of despair, and understandably so. Last night I suffered muscle spasms in my left leg, which I endure from time to time. Last night, I tried rubbing it and it did not stop the spasms. In the past, I have tried heat and cold, and they have not worked, either. My point is not that the muscle spasms I experienced last night in my left leg are somehow on the same order of pain as having Covid-19, but to serve as a stimulus for me to imagine the level of frustration and even bitterness that can confront a person who has survived Covid thanks to the treatment she or he received at an ICU, only to realize that there is more to go through.
The more we live with Covid as a society, and the more people we know who experience Covid, the more we learn that having Covid is not like having an ordinary fever, so that when the fever breaks, for example, we can take that as a sign that we are on the mend. Having a clearer view of what Covid can bring to us if we contract it, can make all the difference.
A big part of being a Covid-19 patient includes acceptance without resignation. That can be tough to do, but knowing that it is included in the experience makes us alert to the demands that Covid may make upon us.
The remarkable and newsworthy photographs taken by Dr. Scott Kobler of Covid patients and medical workers in an ICU, along with captions provided via The Los Angeles Times, are a part of this story by Hailey Branson-Potts, Armed With a Camera, a Young ER Doctor Captures the Faces of the COVID War, LOS ANGELES TIMES Online Feb. 15, 2021.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2021 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
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