How about dying at COVID-19? | News

Cadillac-Dr. Joe Sant’Angelo wants you to seek medical assistance if you need it.

Cadillac News recently told Dr. Sant’Angelo, Interim Chief Quality and Safety Officer at Manson Healthcare, what it would be like to die at COVID-19 and what a near miss would look like.

Doctors emphasized the importance of finding ways to encourage readers to take COVID-19 seriously, while not scaring people.

After all, some people are already nervous about going to the hospital.

Cadillac News asked Dr. Santangelo, also known as a pediatrician around Cadillac, about the key moments of COVID-19 treatment.

Every patient is different, so there are few easy answers.

What is COVID-19 hospitalization?

Most hospitalizations with COVID-19 are due to respiratory problems.

Your oxygen level may be low. You may be coughing.

Also, while there is no cure for COVID-19, there are some things healthcare professionals can do to give you a better chance to survive less offended.

You may receive a drip of medicine or body fluid.

They may also get oxygen.

It’s an important moment in your treatment.

It’s really good news if receiving oxygen through a cannula (a small tube leading to the nose) is enough to reach and stay in the safety zone. If it does not function as the doctor desires, the patient often needs to use a ventilator.

“If you need to be on a ventilator, you are far less likely to survive and succeed,” said Dr. Santangelo. It’s not yet clear how low your chances of survival are. About 80% died if the ventilator had to be used in March. Now it’s much lower, about 20 or 30%, but the reason for that is still unclear, said Dr. Sant’Angelo.

How about going to a ventilator?

A ventilator is a machine that pumps air into the lungs. According to Dr. Sant’Angelo, it is used when people can’t breathe well enough to absorb oxygen or emit carbon dioxide.

The tubes flow down the throat and into the wind ducts, facilitating air movement.

That’s good because your body needs oxygen and needs to get rid of carbon dioxide.

But ventilators are not without some problems.

“Our lungs aren’t built to push air in,” said Dr. Sant’Angelo.

Permanent damage can occur, depending on how long you are on the ventilator and the force required to force air into your lungs.

If you’re using a ventilator for another reason, such as surgery, and your lungs are healthy, your lungs can help.

However, in addition to lung damage from COVID-19, long-term use of a ventilator may further damage the lungs, Dr. Santa Viero said.

According to Dr. Sant’Angelo, there is a good chance that you will be sedated before using the ventilator, but some can tolerate without sedation. People who have used a ventilator before and know that it provides relief, such as patients with chronic lung disease, may be able to tolerate the ventilator without sedatives.

Dr. Sant’Angelo says modern ventilators are fairly quiet, “noise is not a major issue in the way ventilators operate today.”

It’s not just the reliance on ventilators that matters.

If the rest of the body is working well, it is much more likely to survive than if other problems were encountered.

What about the rest of your body?

If you really get sick with COVID-19, other parts of your body may begin to suffer. Problems with the kidneys and liver can occur. You may have a blood clot. Other infectious diseases can make you sick.

“You can have complications in other parts of your body that aren’t related to your breathing, and they can make the whole picture more complicated,” Dr. Santangelo said.

Blood clots occur when your body is trying to heal itself.

“If a patient really gets sick for a variety of reasons, not just COVID-19, your body can release many of the chemicals the body is trying to use to prevent infections.” Dr. Santangelo said. Your body is trying to come up with a solution, but sometimes doing so causes problems. “These chemicals can have other effects…it can start to clot where your blood shouldn’t clot.”

“If you’re cut and bleeding, your blood is supposed to clot. It shouldn’t clot to flow in your arteries and veins,” Dr. Sant’Angelo explained.

Blood clots cause some parts of your body to not get enough blood. As a result, it can cause a stroke or lack of blood in the extremities, which can lead to amputation.

If you’re sick enough to have COVID-19-related blood clots, you’ll generally know. Perhaps you will be sick enough to be admitted to the intensive care unit.

“Generally, no one is walking around with a very mild COVID-19 disease and blood clots,” said Dr. Santangelo. “There are always exceptions, but that’s the principle.”

What is your recovery period?

Your recovery often depends on how sick you are with COVID-19.

Even if you have mild COVID-19 symptoms (cough and fever, fatigue for several weeks) and you do not need to be hospitalized, you should regularly check in with your doctor. Initially check in every few days. You probably need a telehealth reservation. Then check in weekly until you recover (or as often as your doctor says).

Dr. Sant’Angelo said, “If we were morbid enough to be hospitalized on a ventilator, there are some things we really have to think about when you get home, you’re very weak. Said. “So, some physical therapy will be needed to help restore strength.”

If problems occur during hospitalization, follow-up with a specialist may be required. For example, if you have kidney problems, see a nephrologist. If you have a stroke, you will see a neurologist.

Dr. Sant’Angelo said patients who experienced COVID-19 are often surprised at how long it takes to regain full strength. They can be months before rebuilding their muscles.

Bedrest inactivity, reduced oxygen reaching your muscles, and your energy and strength during COVID-19 while your body collects energy (in the form of proteins) to break down your muscles and fight the virus. Sa can really take a hit.

“Many COVID-19 patients see them coming home, but they are really tired, weak, and need a long time to recover,” Dr. Sant’Angelo said.

How long does it take to rebuild muscle? Cadillac News asked that it may not be as long as it took to build it in the first place. Mentioned the time it takes for bodybuilders and people to lose weight and change physique.

“Getting to that point is much easier than trying to train yourself to become a bodybuilder,” said Dr. Sant’Angelo. “It’s certainly not a year-long process, but it can be months, depending on how initially you are sick and how sick you are with COVID-19.”

Similarly, if your kidneys begin to deteriorate during COVID-19, your kidneys may recover. It will not be automatically dialyzed for the rest of your life.

The kidneys are elastic and there is a good chance of recovery if they were healthy before COVID-19.

According to Dr. Santangelo, those who need to continue long-term dialysis after COVID-19 probably had “some renal disease” in advance.

“It’s very rare for a patient to need long-term dialysis after COVID-19 or to need a kidney transplant,” Dr. Sant’Angelo said. “It’s possible, but very rare.”

How about your family?

If you are about to die with COVID-19, you will usually get a warning.

But there may not be enough time for everyone to say goodbye.

Sometimes, “You can see them get worse and not respond to treatment, so you know, you know where things are going.”

From time to time, a bad turn comes unexpectedly.

“I think it’s rare for someone to suddenly die at COVID-19 and walk down the street and die at COVID-19 within the next few hours,” Dr. Santangelo said.

Hospital visitor policies are designed to reduce the prevalence of COVID-19, with the exception being made on a case-by-case basis, in the “specially disused kind of situation”, Dr. Santangelo said. “We’re really working hard to get as many visits as we can safely manage for end-of-life patients.”

The family should expect to wear a mask and possibly other equipment, depending on the clinical situation.

Additional visitor restrictions may resume if COVID-19 case loads increase or the government requires it.

How do you know that COVID-19 mortality is not increasing?

After all, you may have heard that the cause of everyone’s death is that your heartbeat stops.

But that’s not a useful way to talk about what causes people to die, Dr. Sant’Angelo said.

The public health system is investigating deaths when a person with COVID-19 dies. Often, it’s a doctor who works for the medical department, another doctor, or a doctor.

Those people are looking at death certificates to see if COVID-19 caused death.

“Suppose the patient has COVID-19, which means that the patient’s oxygen levels are low and they need to wear a ventilator, and the ventilator can’t get enough oxygen and after a while “There isn’t enough oxygen, it stops,” said Dr. Sant’Angelo. “Well, they died because their hearts stopped, but the reason they stopped was because COVID-19 didn’t get enough oxygen. So it was caused by COVID-19. It’s dead.”

A COVID-19 person who has had a car accident cannot be counted as a COVID-19 death.

“I feel at ease with the reported numbers for COVID-19 mortality because our medical system conducted a review of that doctor,” Dr. Santangelo said.