(CMR)People who contract the coronavirus may have permanent lung damage, a trauma surgeon said.
Dr. Britanny Bankhead-Kendall, a Texas trauma surgeon, said the damage to the lungs of persons who have contracted the virus is far worse than the damage done to smokers' lungs. She tweeted,
“I don't know who needs to hear this, but “post-Covid” lungs look worse than any type of terrible smoker's lungs we've ever seen.”
She said, “the lungs collapse and clot off, and that shortness of breath lingers on.”
In a Fox News report, Bankhead-Kendall said that most of the coronavirus patients she treated had a severe chest X-ray every time, including those who were asymptomatic.
Bankhead-Kendall explained that a smoker’s X-ray typically reveals white lines, indicating scarring and congestion. With a COVID-19 survivor, an X-ray commonly shows the lungs filled with white, indicating severe scarring and congestion.
Although there is not yet enough research to determine the coronavirus's lasting effects, researchers have identified what has been called “long COVID.” This occurs when patients still experience certain symptoms of the virus months after recovering from it, such as severe fatigue, headache dyspnea, and anosmia, among others.
Research by King's College, London, found that one in 20 people with COVID-19 is likely to suffer symptoms for 8 weeks or more ( ‘long COVID’), potentially adding up to many hundreds of thousands in the UK and millions worldwide.
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