A trauma surgeon in Texas says it’s rare for X-rays of one of her COVID-19 patients to come back without dense scars. Dr. Brittany Bankhead-Kendall tweeted that, “Post-COVID lungs look worse than any terrible smoker’s lung type. And they collapse. And they clot. And the shortness of breath lingers … and so … and on.”
“Everyone is so concerned about mortality and it is awful and awful,” she told CBS Dallas. “But man, for all the survivors and the people who tested positive, this is … it’s going to be a problem.”
She has treated thousands of patients since March.
Bankhead-Kendall, an assistant professor of surgery at Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, says patients with COVID-19 symptoms show a severe chest X-ray each time, and those who were asymptomatic a serious chest X-ray. 70 to 80% of the time.
“There are still people who say, ‘I’m fine. I don’t have any problems, “and you pull up their chest X-ray and they definitely have a bad chest X-ray,” she said.
In this photo of a normal lung, smoker’s lung, and a COVID-19 lung that Dr. Bankhead-Kendall shared with CBS Dallas, the healthy lungs are clean with a lot of black, which is mostly air. In the smoker’s lung, white lines indicate scarring and congestion – while the COVID lung is filled with white.
CBS Dallas
“You’ll either see a lot of those white, dense scars, or you’ll see it all over the lungs. Even you don’t feel any problems now, the fact that that’s on your chest X-ray – it’s definitely a clue to you. possibly problems later, ”noted Bankhead-Kendall.
She said it is too early to know the impact of COVID-19 on your body and whether the scars will heal, but it is important that if you experience shortness of breath after leaving COVID-19, keep in touch with your doctor.
She adds, “There is no long-term implication of a vaccine that could ever be as bad as the long-term implications of COVID.”