Sometimes kidneys are impacted, but really, any organ can suffer injury in the ICU. HAMILTON: And for many, she says, there's been organ damage.īELLINGHAUSEN: People can have injuries to their lungs or scarring in their lungs. People lose 20, 30, 40 pounds over a week or two in the ICU. Bellinghausen says most patients start out so weak they are nearly helpless.īELLINGHAUSEN: That whole time in the ICU, they're losing muscle mass. HAMILTON: The condition is known as post-ICU syndrome. Amy Bellinghausen of the University of California San Diego says some COVID-19 survivors will never recover completely.ĪMY BELLINGHAUSEN: Unfortunately, oftentimes, when they're coming off the ventilator, it's not the same person as who went on the ventilator. HAMILTON: If Williams makes a full recovery, he can count himself among the fortunate. WILLIAMS: It was hard for me to try and recall things or - because, like - right now it takes me a while to think about the words I need to be able to say now, but I'm slowly getting it back. HAMILTON: Williams can feed himself now, but he's still having problems with memory and thinking. WILLIAMS: It took me, like, five or six minutes just to pick that thing up, to get my fingers actually on it and my brain telling my hand to lift it up and, you know, to put it in my mouth. He couldn't drink, so a nurse left him a damp swab to suck on. When Williams first woke up, he had almost no control of his arms and legs, and like most patients on a ventilator, he felt parched pretty much all the time. HAMILTON: Even so, Williams says he's improved a lot, especially since he was overweight and out of shape when he got sick. WILLIAMS: So I need it when I have to wake up in the middle night or something and go to bathroom because, you know, trying to get the feet going again is a little rough. HAMILTON: Also, he still depends on a walker. And so I wear my oxygen on my nose, and I'm still able to travel all over the house. But he's still tethered to an oxygen machine.ĭAVID WILLIAMS: I just wear my - actually, I have, like, a hundred-foot cord. HAMILTON: That was more than two weeks ago, and Williams, who is 54, is home now with his wife. The man is David Williams, a former Marine who spent a week on a ventilator after getting COVID-19, and hospital staff have lined up to give him a big sendoff. JON HAMILTON, BYLINE: At a veterans hospital in Little Rock, Ark., a big man in a wheelchair is gliding toward the exit. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports that the process of recovery can be long and grueling. For someone with a life-threatening case of COVID-19, survival is just the first step.
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