Nose nightmare
Doctors have encountered other symptoms or side effects of Covid-19 that are as mysterious as the loss of smell and taste.
A new report published in the European Journal of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery cited the case of an 86-year-old Italian woman who got sick with the coronavirus in April 2020. Doctors observed the loss of blood supply to three fingers in her right hand, leading to clotting and gangrene. The complication forced the amputation of the dead and rotting fingers.
As to why it happened to the old lady, doctors speculate that the immune system overreacts to the virus and kills both harmful and healthy cells.
Symptoms or signs of Covid-19 infection initially included fever, body aches, trouble breathing and nasal congestion. Other signs that joined the list later were nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and inability to taste and smell, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last week, skin rashes, mouth sores and an enlarged tongue were reported in one of every five Covid-19 patients, King’s College London researcher Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology, revealed.
The loss of smell and taste were once considered the worst symptoms of Covid-19, particularly when the condition becomes permanent. Gangrene, however, is now considered the most serious side effect because it leads to amputation.
A popular Chinese actress-singer unexpectedly suffered gangrene in the most unexpected part of her body that is worse than fingers. While it was not a side effect of Covid-19, which she did not have, it was still devastating for her.
The 25-year-old Gao Liu recently told her five million followers on Weibo that she was forced to cancel her shows in December, thereby losing the equivalent of 400,000 yuan in potential income and costing her 2 million yuan in damages paid to a production company.
Gao was also forced to hide and worst, contemplate suicide. Now she faces the possibility of getting disfigured permanently.
Apparently, the gangrene developed on the tip of her nose following a botched nose job she had at a beauty clinic in Guangzhou last October. She had expected the procedure, suggested by a friend, to improve her already beautiful face and draw more projects, but, unfortunately, the contrary happened.
An implant that doctors put on the tip of her nose was apparently rejected by her tissue and the area became necrotic. In the photos she posted on social media, Gao has a blackened nose tip as the tissue surrounding her nostrils are clotted and dead. She is hoping that her career wouldn’t nosedive further.