Medical professionals are learning more about the abnormal effects COVID-19 causes on a person’s lungs, including those who showed no symptoms at all.
Dr. Brittany Bankhead-Kendall, a Texas based trauma surgeon, went to Twitter to shine a light on the dangerous impact COVID-19 has on the body.
“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,” the post stated.
Dr. Bankhead-Kendall said that some patients will come in to the ER after a car crash or a fall, and the patient’s chest scan is shocking.
“Most of it is filled with black, or in an X ray, that’s all air. And that means that the lung is completely filling with air,” she said.
She also explained that in a COVID-19 lung, even after recovering, you can see a lot of dense white material, which is indicative of old scarring, maybe new scarring, as well as congestion.
Doctors are beginning to see the health effects evolve into much worse scenarios.
“Now we’re seeing the evolution of it and people coming in with collapsed lungs and clotted lungs and, and residual COVID. And, and it’s just, it’s terrible. And it’s heartbreaking,” she said.
If you have had COVID-19, there is no reason to rush out to get a chest X-Ray right now, but you should talk to your primary care doctor to let them know about testing positive, said Dr. Bankhead-Kendall.
Dr. Bankhead-Kendall wants to get the message out into the public about the severity of long-lasting COVID-19 effects.
She wants people to understand that even a mild case of COVID-19 can carry consequences that doctors are still in the beginning stages of understanding.
“My only hope in sharing this was that if it helped one person to mask up one more time, or if it helps one less person to get sick from it, then then it’s worth it,” she said.