Recovered Covid Patients

Many recovered coronavirus patients are anything but

Written by Chris Reed

June 21, 2020

https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2020/06/21/cdr-many-recovered-coronavirus-patients-are-anything-but/#.XvDYwdiSlwI

Among the more than 1,000 people who have had the coronavirus in Southern Utah, there are 697 people who are considered recovered. 

But while the dictionary defines being recovered as returning to a “normal state of health,” many who have had the virus locally have hardly been able to return to “normal.”

“There’s a spectrum in those who have recovered that they’re not hospitalized but not in their normal health standards and not able to do activity for several months,” said Dr. Angela Dunn, state epidemiologist with the Utah Department of Health. 

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To free up the quickly-filling beds, hospitals like Dixie Regional are sending coronavirus patients home as soon as they are past the point where they could die, but not necessarily “feeling better.”

“People discharged from hospital don’t just go back to their daily lives,” Dunn said. 

A large majority of those infected haven’t been in the hospital at all. As of Friday, the Utah Department of Health said 92.7% of those who have gotten the virus in the state have not been hospitalized. But many are still having to suffer with severe symptoms at home. Hospitalizations are reserved for those with the most severe of symptoms.

And those symptoms aren’t going away after what was thought to be the two-week gestation period of the virus. 

Social media is filled with examples of people who describe being on day 50, 70, 80 after getting diagnosed with COVID-19 and still dealing with its symptoms. 

For some, it can be still  not getting a sense of taste or smell back. For others, it is dealing with more severe conditions like uncontrollable coughing, inability to walk without pain, an on-and-off fever, damaged lungs and mini strokes.

A recent article in The Atlantic detailed several people who still feel sick long after they were considered “recovered” from the coronavirus.

Many of the coronavirus survivors have coined the term “long-haulers” online to describe having to deal with the effects of the virus long after they moved into the category of recovered.

Another online article, on the Upworthy website, compiles Twitter messages from nurses on the front line about patients considered recovered, including some of the nurses themselves.

They describe feeling “better,” then being bedridden three months later. 

Some are in need of lung transplants or have gone from being perfectly healthy to eight weeks later having kidney failure and now needing dialysis for the rest of their lives.

A 24-year-old nurse describes chest pains and being unable to go up stairs months after her diagnosis.
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Cherie Antoinette

@sheriantoinette

Jun 14

COVID 19 is the worst disease process I’ve ever worked with in my 8 years as an ICU nurse. 

When they say “recovered” they don’t tell you that that means you may need a lung transplant. Or that you may come back after d/c with a massive heart attack or stroke bc COVID makes blood thick as hell. Or that you may have to be on oxygen for the rest of your life. COVID is designed to kill. It is a highly intelligent virus and it attacks everything. We will run out of resources if we don’t continue to flatten the curve.  I’m exhausted.

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Alicia

@YeahImAlicia

Jun 14

I am a nurse on a COVID floor, I caught it. I am a relatively healthy 24year old & could barely walk up a half flight of stairs. My blood pressure skyrocketed, chest pain was debilitating. I’m 8 weeks out and still feeling the chest pain and shortness of breath. This is no joke.