ICU full of critically ill COVID-19 patients: Dr. Sany Kumar
CLEVELAND, Ohio — United States of America is leading the globe in the number of COVID-19 cases.
Since the origin of the coronavirus in December we misjudged its infectivity, based on low mortality rates and fewer cases at that time. In Ohio, we had our first case in the second week of March and with early safety measures we were doing well, compared to other states.
Initially based on studies available we thought that COVID-19 caused mild to no illness in younger people, and the age group with the highest mortality was above 60.
Related: Ohio hits a high in the number of people hospitalized with coronavirus
Now we realize that’s not the case; COVID-19 can affect any age group. Now we see younger people admitted to intensive care units with severe cases, fighting for their lives.
In Ohio, we hit our first peak in the third week of April, and since then we were on trend to flatten the curve. We reopened the state slowly, with social distancing and face masks.
Since the second week of June, cases in Ohio have been on the uptrend. What’s really eye catching is that number of hospitalization has peaked, as compared to initially, and our intensive care units are full of critically ill COVID-19 patients.
Patients with COVID-19 who end up on the ventilator stay for longer time, as compared to other diseases. There are lot of medical unknowns in recovered COVID-19 patients that still have to be sorted out.
In retrospect what if we had taken COVID-19 seriously like other countries and saved thousands of lives? What if we had not treated it as like flu or hoax? We could have been an example, like other European countries where the curve has flattened. Every day we see states that had very low rates initially now having surge of cases.
As a resident physician in training I have seen how practice of medicine is changing and every day we learn something new. I hope as a nation we overcome this pandemic.
Sany Kumar is a third year internal medicine resident at Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital. He likes writing about public health topics, reading and traveling.
