Physiotherapy to overcome Covid-19 battle
PHYSIOTHERAPISTS are central to rehabilitation following Covid-19 and form a core part of the team treating recovering patients, not only in intensive care units, wards and intermediate care facility’s (ICF), but also in the home environment.
National Physiotherapy BackWeek, ending on Sunday, aims to highlight the role of physiotherapists in getting Covid-19 patients back to optimal function.
“I was in a ward full of older women, doing a one-on-one treatment with a patient,” said physiotherapist Helanie Pool, who is working in an ICF in Nelson Mandela Bay.
“We were doing breathing exercises and arm and leg exercises when I suddenly became aware that all the other ladies in the ward were doing the exercises along with her. I wasn’t doing a group class – they all just jumped right in and did it too. It was unbelievably special,” she said.
The ICF, one of several in the city, is the final phase of formal recovery from Covid-19, a step-down from hospital.
This facility can house 300 patients, all of whom have been on supplemental oxygen, some on highflow oxygen or ventilation.
“They are so utterly happy to be alive,” Pool said.
“They are grateful to see friendly, helpful faces.”
Six of those friendly faces are physiotherapists, dressed in personal protective equipment (PPE) which hampers physical movement and touch, but are still able to do essential treatment that equips the patients for a return to home and normal life by focusing on the their cardiopulmonary (heart and lung) function and endurance, as well as mobility.
“I had one patient, a sweet person, awake and aware, but very ill. She had problems with multiple organs. She was not a candidate for ICU, so we did everything we could for her here. She responded very well and she’s gone home now,” said Pool.
“As taxing, difficult and uncomfortable an environment as this is, there’s a whole spectrum of positivity and camaraderie.”
The South African Society of Physiotherapy (SASP) says a growing body of research indicates that around 10% of patients who have been sick with Covid-19 will have prolonged recoveries.
SASP president Rogier van Bever Donker said: “One Italian study showed that after 60 days, around 87% of patients still had at least one symptom, while other evidence indicates that some patients – the ‘long-haulers’, as they’re called – may still be battling symptoms and energy deficits after several months.
“People in whom symptoms persist will need exercise training, education, behavioural modification and guidance – all of which physiotherapists are well equipped to provide.”