It is just like living in a war zone when a bomb goes off...but perhaps worse. A bomb goes off only once
Leading medical experts are comparing the lasting effects of Covid-19 to being the victim of a terrorist attack or living in a war zone.
And, they say, even if patients survive the immediate attack on respiratory systems, the virus can still cause fatal heart attacks, strokes and organ failure.
As doctors and scientists learn more about the virus, specialists warn long-term psychological complications leave some survivors suffering symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Professor Tim Walsh said: “We’re finding that for some of the most critically ill patients who have been in intensive care, the effects are similar to them being in a terrorist attack or living in a war zone.
“In fact, the effects can be even more acute because a bomb will go off once, but some of the most seriouslyill Covid patients can be on a ventilator for months and the effects of that can cause added problems.
“In many ways the long-term psychological problems can be just as hard to cope with as the physical problems with patients ‘losing’ months of their lives being sedated on a ventilator along with the weird dreams they may suffer as they come out of sedation.
“Even being surrounded by masked doctors and nurses for months at a time can leave a mark, and because Covid is so infectious, they’re kept apart from family and friends so they don’t get the support and reassurance which plays a crucial role in recovery.”
Pre-Covid, it was highly unusual for ICU patients to remain on ventilators for months at a time.
Professor Walsh, professor of critical care at Edinburgh University and leader of the Edinburgh Critical Care Research Group, said: “We rarely see patients who require being on a ventilator for more than a couple of weeks or so. But with Covid, we’re seeing patients needing that level of support for several months.
“There is no drug regime to get them better either, so recovery is a long hard road.
“After being sedated for months patients will develop loss of muscle strength and other issues that require multi-disciplinary teams working together to get them back up on their feet, well enough to get out of hospital, then access the support they need back home in the community.
“Right now we are working with colleagues around the world to share knowledge so we can do the very best we can for our patients by putting together a coordinated recovery programme with as much emphasis on psychological recovery as physical recovery.
“Depression and anxiety is something we’re expecting to see, and not just from the patients themselves. Covid has taken a dreadful strain on families who have had to sit at home worrying and waiting for a dreaded phone call. That undoubtedly takes a toll.”
Meanwhile, respected infectious diseases expert Professor Jack Lambert, who has been working on the frontline at Mater Hospital, Dublin, since the start of the pandemic, warns that patients are dying from strokes and heart attacks even after appearing to recover from Covid-19.
He said: “It isn’t just attacking the respiratory system, it’s attacking blood cells and causing heart attacks and strokes, and organ failure. What’s deeply concerning is that even with young patients who have had a mild Covid-19 infections, we’re discovering cardiomyopathy-damaged hearts.
“We’re seeing people suffering seizures and brain inflammation following the completion of the Covid infection, with 2% presenting with confusion and new seizures. Those who do survive will face many months of recuperation, and we need to prepare them and the NHS to help these people get back their lives.”
The professor, renowned worldwide for his work on HIV and Ebola, believes experts won’t fully discover all the medical side-effects of Covid-19 for at least another year and warns many of the worst complications emerge after the patient appears to be recovering.
He said: “We’re seeing
I predict Covid will become endemic