Thursday, May 7, 2020

Silent hypoxia: Covid-19 patients who should be gasping for air but aren't

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/06/health/happy-hypoxia-pulse-oximeter-trnd-wellness/index.html

 In hospitals around the world, doctors are shaking their heads in disbelief as they watch Covid-19 patients who should be comatose or "seizing" from hypoxia -- a lack of oxygen in the body's tissues -- check social media, chat with nurses and barely complain of discomfort while breathing.
 
Some have dubbed them "happy hypoxics," a terrible misnomer for what could be a long, slow recovery -- or worse.
The proper medical term is "silent hypoxia." It happens when people are unaware they are being deprived of oxygen and are therefore showing up to the hospital in much worse health than they realize.
Typically, these patients have experienced some Covid-19 symptoms for two to seven days before they show up at the hospital complaining of sudden chest tightness or an inability to breathe deeply, said Dr. Richard Levitan, who's been an emergency room physician for some 30 years.
 
There he watched patients come into the emergency room with blood oxygen levels as low as 50%, so low they should have been incoherent, even unconscious. Normal blood oxygen saturation is between 95% and 100%, and anything below 90% is considered abnormal.
 
 
"We found two out of three patients can avoid a ventilator during the first 24 hours by putting them on oxygen and doing these positioning maneuvers, such as laying them prone on their stomach," he said.

4 comments :

  1. Garnel IronheartMay 7, 2020 at 3:52 PM

    An incredible reminder of the complexity of God's universe.
    Many of the reports of bad outcomes in ventilated patients were based on these happy hypoxics. Because their saturation was 50% they were automatically ventilated. Then it turns out that some oxygen by nasal cannula is all they needed. This makes no sense, of course. At 50% they shouldn't be conscious. And we have no explanation except "Mah rabu ma'asecha"

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  2. Garnel IronheartMay 7, 2020 at 4:08 PM

    You might also be interested in https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/nyregion/kawasaki-disease-coronavirus.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. watch this for more info


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kl38FOfET0

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  4. And you take a look at this :https://youtu.be/KR92oqEk4Gs

    ReplyDelete

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