- A man spent 64 days in a California hospital where he suffered significant complications from the new coronavirus and underwent an amputation, local newspaper KTLA reported.
- Gregg Garfield became the first known coronavirus patient to be treated at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, after contracting the virus in February.
- When he was discharged from the hospital in May, he had left without a finger on his right hand, and most had gone to his left.
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A man spent 64 days in a California hospital sick with the new coronavirus, suffering major complications and amputations.
Gregg Garfield was treated at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, after he caught the virus during a ski trip to Italy in February, local outlet KTLA reported. He was the first patient to be treated for COVID-19 at that hospital, according to the report.
Garfield’s symptoms quickly worsened and he was placed on a respirator for about a month, according to the report. Doctors gave him a 1% chance of living, according to KTLA.
Garfield told the store that he suffered complications from the virus, including MRSA, sepsis, kidney failure, liver failure, a pulmonary embolism, and a burst lung. All fingers on his right hand, and most on his left, were amputated.
Garfield, who was released from the hospital and returned home on May 8, said his hands “will never be the same,” KTLA reported.
“I no longer have fingers,” he added. “This can happen to you.”
Dr. David Kulber of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles told KTLA that Garfield’s fingers were amputated because of the way the virus affects patients’ blood flow.
“COVID has effects on the endovascular bloodstream, so it actually affects blood flow,” Kulber told the store. “This is why some young people have had strokes, and that is why anticoagulation (putting patients on blood thinners) has now been standard care for COVID patients.”
Health officials have identified excessive blood clotting as a major symptom of coronavirus infections. As Holly Secon of Business Insider reported, complications related to blood vessels have manifested themselves in the legs, lungs, hearts, brains, and skin of patients with coronavirus. While doctors are still unsure of how or why the virus triggers excessive clotting, they are looking to treat these conditions with blood thinners and blood thinning medications.
Kulber told KTLA that surgeons were creating prosthetics for his fingers that would function “like a bionic hand.” The report says the process will require at least six operations.
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