And what if coronavirus consequences were another challenge? According to doctors from Barcelona hospital Vall d'Hebron, Spain, some patients have been recovering for months. An unfortunate analysis from the medical staff reported on July 21, 2020 by Business Insider as they noticed in some cases cognitive impairment, and even loss of basic motor skills having patients to learn how to walk again.
This is what explains Judith Sanchez, head of the Vall d’Hebron hospital’s physical medicine and rehabilitation center, to Reuters, saying she saw patients “who could not move an arm, a leg”, who could not walk or even talk after winning over Covid-19 and eradicate the virus out of their systems. “These can be neurological, respiratory, motor and psychological” she says about complications. She goes on: “many patients develop fear, anxiety, with post-traumatic post-ICU disorders”.
Same analysis in patients, like for 62-year-old Daniel Catay who stayed 21 days in coma in ICU: “I was unable to move the left half of my body – arm, leg – even a millimeter, and then I had several ailments in my right leg and also in my coccyx” he told Reuters. After receiving rehabilitation, he is now able to walk again.
As for 67-year-old Ramon Fite – still at the hospital – he is in rehab, rolling a ball and bouncing it… The goal being to recover full use of his hand. “The truth is that I am very happy, because initially the forecast, according to the doctor, for recovery was up to a year” he told Reuters. He goes on: “Since I am a positive person, this already fills me with satisfaction”.
Another complication noticed by the medical team being inflammation in the brain: “it doesn’t let them think, they’re slow, they don’t remember things, they have memory loss” Sanchez says. And many other effects are noticed: continuous shortness of breath, stroke, fatigue, continuous loss of smell and taste… The list goes on and doctors are still trying to figure out, after advanced exams that came back normal.
For the record, Spain is currently facing a new wave of infections, especially in Catalonia, leading authorities to implement a new series of social distancing measures. And it is only starting.
