Breaking News! COVID-19 Alerts: British Doctors Warns Of New Anomaly Of COVID-19 Patients Appearing Normal Despite Suffering From Severe Hypoxia
Source: COVID-19 Alerts May 04, 2020 4 years, 7 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes ago
COVID-19 Alerts: British doctors are baffled and are reporting of a new anomalous occurrences of COVID-19 patients with extremely low oxygen levels in their blood , ie a condition known as hypoxia but yet appearing normal and not in any kind of distress.
The doctors are shocked that these Covid-19 patients are talking normally and apparently not in distress, but have oxygen levels low enough to typically cause unconsciousness or even death. Such occurrences challenge all the tenets of biology and medicine.
The anomalous phenomenon as some British doctors are calling as“happy hypoxia” or "silent hypoxia" is raising questions about exactly how the virus attacks the lungs and whether there could be more effective ways of treating such patients.
A typical healthy individual would be expected to have an oxygen saturation of at least 95%. But British physicians are reporting patients attending A&E with oxygen percentage levels in the 80s or 70s, with some drastic cases even below 65%.
Dr Jonathan Bannard-Smith, a consultant in critical care and anaesthesia at Manchester Royal Infirmary told media, “It is shocking to see so many people coming in, quite how hypoxic they are. We are seeing oxygen saturations that are very low and they are unaware of that. We would not usually see this phenomenon in influenza or community-acquired pneumonia. It is very much more profound and an example of very abnormal physiology going on before our eyes.”
An anaesthetist at Wythenshawe hospital in Manchester, Dr Mike Charlesworth commented that while other lung conditions could cause severe hypoxia, these patients would typically appear extremely ill.
He said, “With pneumonia or a pulmonary embolism these patients would not be sat up in bed talking to you. We just do not understand this new anomalous occurrence. We do not know if it is causing organ damage that we are not able to detect. We do not understand if the body’s compensating.”
Dr Charlesworth himself had a personal experience of the issue while suffering from Covid-19 in March. After becoming unwell with a cough and fever, he spent 48 hours in bed, during which there were signs he was hypoxic.
A Call For Help! Please help support to sustain this website and all our efforts to propel further research and also various international community projects by making a donation. Donations are accepted via paypal. https://www.thailandmedical.news/p/sponsorship
He commented, “I was sending very strange messages on my phone. I was essentially delirious. Looking back I probably should have come into hospital. I am pretty sure my oxygen levels were low. My wife commented that my lips were very dusky. But I was probably hypoxic and my brain probably was not working very well.”
Dr Charlesworth recovered after a few days in bed, but he and others are conscious that not all cases have positive outcomes.
Another anaesthetist at a London hospital, who reported on conditions of anonymity, recalled one patient who attended A&E saying she felt cold.
He said, “When we put the oximeter on her, her saturation was 40% on air. We obviously thought that was wrong, as usually patients are likely to have hypoxic cardiac arrests. However when a blood sample was taken, her blood was very dark and had oxygen levels equivalent to those seen in people acclimatised to high altitudes. The patient was placed on a ventilator and survived for about a week before dying. I have had a few patients like this. Their outcomes tend to be bad in my experience.” Some of the doctor’s comments resonated with what a doctor in New York had mention in a video featured in one of our previous articles.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/must-read-research-reveals-that-covid-19-attacks-hemoglobin-in-red-blood-cells,-rendering-it-incapable-of-transporting-oxygen--current-medical-protoco
Traditional medical information dictates that as oxygen supplies fall, the heart, brain and other vital organs are placed at risk and the effect is thought to be cumulative. Typically patients would lose consciousness below an oxygen saturation of 75%.
It is not the fall in oxygen levels itself that leaves people feeling breathless. Instead, the body senses the rising levels of carbon dioxide that typically occur simultaneously as the lungs are unable to clear gas as efficiently.
However in some Covid-19 patients, this response does not appear to be kicking in.
Dr Bannard-Smith added, “I do not think any of us expect that what we are seeing can be explained by one process.”
It has been observed that swelling and inflammation in the lungs is likely to make it difficult for oxygen to enter the bloodstream. There is also emerging evidence that Covid-19 causes blood clotting. The vessels in the lungs that collect oxygen and transfer it into the wider bloodstream are so tiny they can become blocked with the smallest of clots.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/read-covid-19-clinical-care-minute-blood-clots-could-be-aggravating-and-making-covid-19-more-lethal
Currently, a few clinical trials are looking at whether blood thinners could prevent or treat complications of Covid-19, including respiratory problems and low blood oxygen.
Medical experts are suggesting that since individuals are often oblivious to falling oxygen levels, those with Covid-19 symptoms or a positive test result should be given pulse oximeters, a simple device that clips on to the finger and can be used to detect oxygen levels at home.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-tips-oximeters,-a-potential-home-tool-to-monitor-progress-of-covid-19-symptoms-from-mild-to-moderate-and-to-detect-covid-19-pneumonia-early
The anomalous occurrences have been reported to various health agencies and doctors are waiting for official guidelines and warnings to be officially issued.
For the latest
COVID-19 Alerts, keep logging on to Thailand Medical News. Also please help share this article.
A Call For Help! Please help support to sustain this website and all our efforts to propel further research and also various international community projects by making a donation. Donations are accepted via paypal. https://www.thailandmedical.news/p/sponsorship
