In one of her Twitter posts, she says that “post-covid lungs look worse than any kind of terrible smoker’s lung I’ve ever seen.”
“Everyone is so worried about mortality, and that’s awful and awful. But man, and all the survivors and people who have tested positive, will be a problem,” Dr. Bankhead-Kendall said.
COVID ‘long carriers’: Some who first saw mild symptoms experiencing debilitating problems months later
Like many, he has treated thousands of patients since March.
Of these, she tells CBS 11 News, those who have had COVID-19 symptoms each time have a severe chest x-ray. And those who have been asymptomatic have a severe chest x-ray between 70% and 80% of the time.
“There are still people who say, ‘I’m fine, I don’t have a problem,’ and you have a chest x-ray and they have a really bad chest x-ray,” she said.
Here is a photo of a normal lung, a smoker and a COVID-19 lung that Dr. Bankhead-Kendall shared with CBS 11 News.
Healthy lungs are clean with black representing air. In the smoker’s lung, white lines indicate scarring and congestion. While the COVID lung is filled with white.
“Either you will see a lot of dense white scars, or you will see it all over your lungs. And if you don’t feel any problems now, the fact that it’s on the chest x-ray is sure to be indicative of you having problems later, “said Dr. Bankhead-Kendall.
She said it is too early to know the impact of COVID-19 on the body or whether the scars will heal, however she said that it is important that if you have difficulty breathing after COVID-19 disappears, stay in touch with your primary care physician.
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