The doctor remembers a special patient who almost escaped COVID-19: Shot

It seemed like a good idea for patients to choose to move to an Assisted Living facility in late 2019. This is an opportunity for more social interaction and dietary and medical support.

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It seemed like a good idea for patients to choose to move to an Assisted Living facility in late 2019. This is an opportunity for more social interaction and dietary and medical support.

Jose Luis Pelaez / Getty Images

Karl was in the early 70’s. A Vietnam veteran, he suffered from PTSD with diabetes, high blood pressure, and COPD due to smoking. He also survived a kidney cancer attack along his medical journey.

In late 2019, he came to see me because he was considering moving to a living support facility.I thought it was a good idea — as an older man who had previously attempted suicide, I was worried about it Lonely Will exacerbate his difficulties.

Karl has become estranged from his family. I knew he had an adult son and daughter, but he refused to talk to them, let alone talk to them.

Assisted Living offers several communities in addition to 3 squares a day. The facility also had a nurse to help with medical care.

About a month after he moved there, the nurse told me she sent Karl to the hospital because of fever and shortness of breath. His oxygen saturation was below 90%.

This was early March when COVID-19 was still mostly in China and Italy. Our lives didn’t stop. Still.

Karl was admitted to the ICU for “double pneumonia.” His chest x-ray showed evidence of this in both lungs. Not surprising for older men with a long history of smoking, lung disease and diabetes.

Karl barely avoided intubation. With careful service, he turned the corner and was discharged to his facility after a long hospital stay. Nasal swab returned positive for influenza. It was caused by the flu!

His return to Assisted Living happened just as the world was closed. All of our lives have changed dramatically.

Karl was quarantined at the facility. The nurses who worked there actually lived from March to April until that became impossible. She and the other staff did everything they could to keep the residents safe.

Before being hospitalized, Karl came to my office every month. It helped to relieve his anxiety. Our visit had to be made by phone as his facility was closed.

I was surprised that he somehow failed to obtain a COVID, not to mention that he survived the hospitalization. His lungs were actually burning due to this type of infection.

Throughout spring, summer and autumn, Karl and I sometimes talked weekly. He was dissatisfied with not being able to go anywhere.

In one of the pandemic twists, Karl started smoking again so he could go outdoors to smoke several times a day.

The happiest thing I’ve heard from him all year round was when he and some of his friends at the facility revealed that he would play a late-night card game.

By the fall, there were sporadic cases at his facility. He and his fellow card players were sent back to their room again. He wasn’t a happy camper.

I’ve always been afraid that Karl would eventually be positive.He is at high risk and elderly care facilities Accelerator For the spread of COVID-19.

It finally happened in December. Another fateful call from the nurse.

Karl was sent back to the hospital because of fever and symptoms. This time he tested positive for COVID-19.

Surprisingly, after three days of observation, Karl was considered medically stable for discharge. This time I had fever and pain without lung involvement.

Due to the high number of cases in his facility, he had to first be quarantined in a skilled nursing facility. This facility was used as a transition zone between the sick’s land and home.

While there on Saturday, he began decompensation. His oxygen saturation dropped and he was sent back to the hospital.

I was able to talk to his bedside nurse. He told me he was having trouble breathing, but he remained clear. I was able to get there in time to say goodbye.

Karl was in a COVID-specific unit that had been ordered to use in a “normal” hospital for a pandemic.

His bedside nurse was visibly pregnant. “I’m already infected with COVID,” she told me.

Karl clearly expressed his desire Absent To be intubated or to take “heroic” steps to try to extend his life. He and I talked a lot about it after his previous hospitalization.

Throughout the year, the ghost of COVID was on Karl. To all of us. And now the vaccine was imminent and his number was being called.

It happened to be a cruel twist of illness — it will be repeated over and over again for at least most of 2021 as the pandemic continues its deadly march throughout America and most of the world.

If Karl could continue to avoid the coronavirus for enough time to be vaccinated, he would definitely have been happy to be vaccinated. More nights on the cards I’m looking forward to.

As I stood by his bedside, Karl waved my gloved hand and said, “Keep doing the good work you are doing.” I knew it would be the last we talk about.

He died a few hours later.

It’s just one of over 343,000 Americans.

John Henning Schumann is a physician and writer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Studio Tulsa Medical Monday At KWGS Public Radio Tulsa. Follow him on Twitter: @GlassHospital..