One in ten people who had COVID-19 reported long-term symptoms in a new study and while they recover at home many are still unwell in need of help.
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now with a closer look at Corona virus long haulers people who recover from the virus but can’t shake symptoms some quite severe for weeks or months Eva Pilgrim has a story good morning Eva Good morning George one in 10 people who’ve had Co 19 will have long-term symptoms according to a recent study and those patients tell us getting the help they need is often hard because doctors don’t believe them experts now warning more help is desperately needed Caitlyn Barber was the picture of Youth and health she’s an avid Runner who spent hours every day training the 27-year-old just got married a year ago we were living The Newlywed dream you know and loving life and our life turned upside down in a day in March Caitlyn a dietician working at a nursing home was diagnosed with coid she recovered at home and she thought that would be the end of it she’s had repeated negative coid tests the virus gone from her body but the Le lingering effects are not now even worse we kind of call it the corona coaster um because one day could be okay and the next day I’m on the floor having convulsions thinking I’m having a heart attack you don’t know when you’re going to drop Caitlyn can’t walk on her own she’s so weak her husband and family have to help her walk stand even shower are you worried if about is your life going to go back to normal absolutely it’s been six months and I don’t know what my future holds Caitlyn is a CO long hauler her debilitating symptoms include a rapid heart rate fatigue and loss of brain cognition several doctor visits more questions than answers brought her here to Mount sinai’s postco Clinic we’re seeing a lot of patients after coid having similar symptoms Dr Zin Chen is the director here it’s the largest clinic in the country dedicated to treating long Haulers is there a typical patient that you’re seeing what we’re seeing at the center is a very wide distribution of both age sex ethnicity pre-existing condition versus healthy patients so you’re not protected if you’re young and healthy unfortunately meline Carlton is also a long hauler the Delaware mother of two was able to run and do yoga after recovering from a heart attack two years ago the headaches are so extreme that I’m taking migraine medicine and sleeping for you know 14 to 16 hours a day melene sees her doctors at Mount Si over Zoom because there is no treatment program near her I have patients not only across the country but across the world that are are seeking advice because they just haven’t been able to find support in terms of the Health Care system at Mount siai the postco clinic currently seeing more than 500 long hauler patients the waiting list to get in growing you’ve been quoted as saying this is an impending tsunami of patients this other group of patients with symptoms that are unrelenting that need to see many doctors in order to you know discuss and treat all of their symptoms it is a large group almost tsunami like that will just hit us over the next I think 6 months Your Story You’re sharing it as a warning to other people I don’t share my story because of me I share my story for everyone else I want people to see this story and protect themselves and doct Zen telling me that he never expected that there were so many patients at home who had never been hospitalized with these long-term symptoms a lot of the patients that we’ve spoken to say they found resources and advice on Facebook support groups and that’s how they found the clinics and the doctors that they’re now going to Robin glad to hear that Eva thank you so much and joining us now is Dr Jennifer Ashton and and Jen and you know I’m trying to think are there any other illnesses that affect patients like we just saw in Eva’s report well Robin imagine how terrifying and frustrating it is to be suffering these symptoms like we just heard and doctors have never heard of this they’ve never seen it they don’t know what causes and they don’t know how to treat it yes we’ve seen other similar syndromes after infection sometimes after viruses Epstein bar we’ve seen it in chronic lime we see it with chronic fatigue syndrome we’ve e even seen it after SARS and the theory and I want to emphasize the theory is that somehow this virus attacks the lining of the blood vessels and or the autonomic nervous system and produces these debilitating symptoms so tell us more what are these long-term possible effects of Corona virus and the complications that that we’re seeing these patients suffer with well Robin this it seems to be producing a vague array of symptoms ranging from fatigue we have body aches muscle aches shortness of breath this mental fog or cognitive changes people can’t concentrate leading to basically in some cases an inability to function and as we heard this number seems to be growing if you remember the tip of the iceberg that we heard from epidemiologists that so many millions of people may have had coid not even be diagnosed we are talking about potentially a significant number of people and Jen a new study out this week about the Mental effects of Corona virus nearly a third of hospitalized patients experiencing some type of mental dysfunction so do we know why this is happening we don’t somehow this virus is accessing the brain tissues uh we’ve seen it again with other types of Corona virus it’s not clear whether it’s due to a change in blood supply to the brain or an inflammatory response but huge numbers for neurologic and mental and psychological effects that again we’re keeping an eye on okay Jen thank you so much and we we thank the patients for coming forward to let others know that they’re not alone if they’re suffering with this post thanks so much Jen well hey there GMA fans Robin Roberts here thanks for checking out our YouTube channel lots of great stuff here so go on click the Subscribe button right over right over here to get more of Awesome videos and content from GMA every day anytime time we thank you for 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