Many patients experience muscle weakness after lying in a hospital bed for so long, said Dr. Dale Needham, a critical care physician at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a leader in the field of intensive care recovery. As a result, they may have trouble walking, climbing stairs, or lifting objects.
Nerve damage or weakness can also reduce muscle strength, Dr. Needham said. Neurological problems can also cause other symptoms. Dr. Chen said that the Mount Sinai post-Covid center has referred nearly 40 percent of patients to neurologists for problems such as fatigue, confusion and mental confusion.
“Some of it is very debilitating,” he said. “We have patients come in and tell us, ‘I can’t focus on work. I have recovered, I have no breathing problems, I have no chest pain, but I cannot return to work because I cannot concentrate. “
The center also refers some of these patients for psychological consultations, said Dr. Chen.
“It is very common for patients to have PTSD after going through this: nightmares, depression and anxiety because they have flashbacks and remember what happened,” said Dr. Lauren Ferrante, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Yale Medical School. who studies Post ICU recovery results.
Experts say emotional problems may increase for Covid-19 patients due to their hospital days without visits from family and friends.
“This experience of being extremely ill and extremely lonely really amplifies the trauma,” said Dr. Putrino, adding that many patients contacted his program to request telemedicine psychology services. “They say, ‘Listen, I’m not really myself and I need to talk to someone.'”
To describe the wide variety of recovery challenges, experts often use a general term, coined about a decade ago: post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS, which can include any of the physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms that patients face.
