The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc around the world as it continues to spread at an alarming rate. Millions of people have already succumbed to the nasty disease. There are many others who have survived the virus and many others who never knew if they caught it as they may have been asymptomatic. Still, the observations made by a trauma surgeon based in Texas, USA, who recently posted on social media are quite troubling.
Dr. Brittany Bankhead-Kendall, of the Center for Health Sciences at Texas Tech University, has found that the lungs of patients recovering from COVID-19 appear to be in a much worse condition than smokers. The doctor has treated patients since the start of the pandemic and has observed countless X-rays of patients infected with COVID-19. He said the lungs of the affected patients show intense scars.
He recently visited Twitter to say that “postcovid lungs look worse than any kind of terrible smoker’s lung we’ve ever seen.” He said those lungs collapse and clot as the shortness of breath persists.
Check out his post on Twitter:
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but “post-Covid” lungs look worse than ANY type of terrible smoker’s lungs we’ve ever seen.
And they collapse. And they clot off.
And the shortness of breath lingers on… & on… & on.
— Brittany Bankhead-Kendall MD (@BKendallMD) January 4, 2021
Bankhead-Kendall said the X-rays of smokers’ lungs look a bit nebulous, but that patients with COVID-19 are almost completely white, indicating intense scarring and shortness of breath entering the organ.
The doctor said everyone is concerned about mortality rates which is surely cause for concern, but the long-term effects of the virus on survivors are also a major threat.
“All the survivors who have tested positive, (for them) will be a problem,” Bankhead-Kendall told the DailyMail.
He said every COVID-19 patient he has treated has had a severe x-ray. Even among asymptomatic patients, between 70 and 80% had severe X-ray results. He said there are people who say it’s okay, but when the x-ray is checked, “they have a bad chest x-ray.”
Bankhead-Kendall compared three X-rays, one of healthy person, one of smoker and one patient of COVID-19.
The x-ray of the healthy person showed a lot of black space, which indicated that he is able to inhale a good amount of air. The smoker’s x-ray showed white lines and nebulosity representing inflammation and damage to the walls of the lungs. The worst results were that of patient COVID-19, which showed almost completely white lungs, indicating pulmonary opacity, meaning the patient cannot consume enough oxygen to the lungs.
Bankhead-Kendall warned that even those who do not suffer from any current difficulties may have problems later.