HEILIGENDAMM, Germany (AP) – Simone Ravera puts on her pants, slips on her shoes and socks, and then enters the cold waters of the Baltic Sea.
The 50-year-old rheumatology nurse is slowly regaining her feet after being run over with COVID-19 last fall, apparently recovered and then relapsed with severe fatigue and “brain fog” four months later.
“The symptoms were almost as bad as at first,” Ravera said.
Near despair, he found a clinic that specializes in treating people with long-term post-COVID-19 or COVID-19 symptoms.
Located in Heiligendamm, a popular North German spa in the late 18th century, the clinic specializes in helping people with lung diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis and cancer.
Over the past year, it has become a major rehabilitation center for COVID-19 patients, serving 600 people from all over Germany, according to its medical director, Dr. Joerdis Frommhold.
Some of his patients died and now have to re-learn to breathe properly, rebuild their endurance, and overcome a number of neurological problems associated with serious illness.
But Frommhold also treats a second group of patients who experienced mild symptoms in the midst of COVID-19 and, if necessary, spent little time in the hospital.
“These patients show symptoms of rebound after one or four months,” Frommhold said.
Most are between 18 and 50 years old and have no pre-existing conditions, he said. “They’re the ones who are usually never sick.”
After recovering from a COVID-19 attack, these patients suddenly find themselves out of breath, depressed, and having difficulty concentrating, Frommhold said. Some suffer from dementia-like symptoms.
A former dialysis nurse found the kitchen flooded because she had forgotten to turn off the tap. “Others can’t do homework with their children because they themselves don’t understand the questions,” Frommhold said.
Its symptoms are not always taken seriously by doctors.
Despite suffering from hair loss, joint and muscle pain, irregular blood pressure, and dizziness, routine test results for these patients tend to return to normal.
“They look young, dynamic, high-performing, but then they can’t do any of the things they used to do,” Frommhold said.
Clinic therapists initially focus on stabilizing patients ’breathing. They then work to restore endurance and motor coordination with the help of occupational therapy and postural training. Cognitive therapy and psychological support are also part of the program.
Over the past year, similar clinics for “long haul carriers” have sprung up around the world, including the United States.. In Germany, this treatment is increasingly offering the country’s network of more than 1,000 medical rehabilitation centers, 50 of which specialize in lung disease.
“This doesn’t exist in many other countries yet,” Frommhold said.
It is unclear how many people suffer from COVID-19 in the long term, in part because the condition is not yet well defined. Scientists are still trying to understand what is behind the wide range of symptoms that patients report.
“No two patients have the same experience and vary within patients,” said Elizabeth Murray, a professor of electronic health and primary care at University College London.
“The symptoms you experience this week are not necessarily a guide to the symptoms you would experience next week,” said Murray, a former general practitioner. “It makes it difficult for everyone; it makes it very, very difficult for patients. “
The UK National Statistics Office said a survey of 9,063 respondents who tested positive for COVID-19 found that more than 20% reported the persistence of some symptoms after five weeks. For approximately 10% of respondents who included fatigue, while a similar number reported headaches or loss of taste and smell.
To date, more than 140 million coronavirus infections have been confirmed worldwide, according to a Johns Hopkins University count, meaning even a small percentage of people with long-term COVID-19 suggest that millions could be affected.
“There are a lot more people to deal with and no health care system has much reserve capacity,” Murray said. He added that the economic impact of so many people leaving the workforce could be devastating, especially since many people who suffer are women who also have a disproportionate burden at home.
Murray is developing a digital program, funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research, to treat COVID-19 symptoms in the long term and reach more patients more quickly than through traditional rehabilitation facilities, ensuring that they do not feel abandoned by the medical system.
Frommhold said a similar program could help Germany cope with the expected increase in people suffering from COVID-19 in the long term, but suggested that greater acceptance of the disease will also be needed for those who do not recover. completely.
“In my eyes, we first need a campaign like the one that was there for HIV awareness, which explains how there are different pathways even after the recovery of COVID,” he said.
Getting patients, their families, and employers to understand that they now have a chronic illness could keep long carriers from falling into a spiral of depression and anxiety, Frommhold said.
Heike Risch, a 51-year-old kindergarten teacher from the eastern city of Cottbus, was barely able to walk without help as he left the hospital after recovering from COVID-19.
“I felt like I had aged 30 in a short period of time,” he said.
At the clinic, Risch could not balance a table tennis ball on a racket and walk backwards. He still can’t read a clock correctly.
“You no longer trust your own body. You no longer trust your own boss, ”Risch said.
Still, he hopes to return to work someday. “I like working with children, but I have to be able to concentrate. I need to be able to do two things at once, ”he said.
Ravera, the nurse, says she has come a long way thanks to therapy in Heiligendamm and feels fortunate to have the support of friends and family.
But Ravera doubts he will be back on three-shift weekends at the hospital where he worked in Bavaria.
“You do not know when you will be well again. The disease comes in waves, ”he said.
Instead, Ravera is considering using what she learned in rehab to help other people struggling to breathe properly after COVID-19.
“It’s a bit of a journey into the unknown,” he said.
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