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https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-recovery-from-covid-19-looks-like/
What Recovery From COVID-19 Looks Like
Outcomes vary greatly depending on age and other factors, a pulmonologist explains
Credit: Getty Images
Reports of recovery from serious illness caused by the coronavirus have been trickling in from around the world.
Physicians are swapping anecdotes on social media: a 38-year-old man who went home after three weeks at the Cleveland Clinic, including 10 days in intensive care. A 93-year-old woman in New Orleans whose breathing tube was removed, successfully, after three days. A patient at Massachusetts General Hospital who was taken off a ventilator after five days and was doing well.
“Patients are definitely recovering from Covid-19 ARDS [acute respiratory distress syndrome] and coming off vents,” Dr. Theodore “Jack” Iwashyna, a professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Michigan, wrote on Twitter recently.
But the outlook for older adults, who account for a disproportionate share of critically ill COVID-19 patients, is not encouraging. Advanced age is associated with significantly worse outcomes for older patients, and even those who survive are unlikely to return to their previous level of functioning.
According to a new study in The Lancet based on data from China, the overall death rate for people diagnosed with coronavirus is 1.4%. But that rises to 4% for those in their 60s, 8.6% for people in their 70s and 13.4% for those age 80 and older.
What Recovery From COVID-19 Looks Like
Outcomes vary greatly depending on age and other factors, a pulmonologist explains
Credit: Getty Images
Reports of recovery from serious illness caused by the coronavirus have been trickling in from around the world.
Physicians are swapping anecdotes on social media: a 38-year-old man who went home after three weeks at the Cleveland Clinic, including 10 days in intensive care. A 93-year-old woman in New Orleans whose breathing tube was removed, successfully, after three days. A patient at Massachusetts General Hospital who was taken off a ventilator after five days and was doing well.
“Patients are definitely recovering from Covid-19 ARDS [acute respiratory distress syndrome] and coming off vents,” Dr. Theodore “Jack” Iwashyna, a professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Michigan, wrote on Twitter recently.
But the outlook for older adults, who account for a disproportionate share of critically ill COVID-19 patients, is not encouraging. Advanced age is associated with significantly worse outcomes for older patients, and even those who survive are unlikely to return to their previous level of functioning.
According to a new study in The Lancet based on data from China, the overall death rate for people diagnosed with coronavirus is 1.4%. But that rises to 4% for those in their 60s, 8.6% for people in their 70s and 13.4% for those age 80 and older.
