HEILIGENDAMM, Germany (AP) – Simone Ravera wraps her pants, takes off her shoes and socks, then walks carefully in the cold waters of the Baltic Sea.
The 50-year-old rheumatologist is slowly regaining her feet after being hit with COVID-19 last fall, apparently recovering and then recurring with severe fatigue and “brain fog” four months later.
“The symptoms were almost as bad as in the beginning,” Ravera said.
Near despair, he found a clinic that specializes in treating people with what have been called long-term post-COVID-19 or COVID-19 symptoms.
Located in Heiligendamm, a spa town in northern Germany, popular since the late 18th century, the clinic specializes in helping people with lung diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis and cancer.
In the last year, it has become a major rehabilitation center for COVID-19 patients, treating 600 people across Germany, according to its medical director, Dr. Joerdis Frommhold.
Some of her patients have almost died and now have to relearn how to breathe properly, regain their resistance and overcome a number of neurological problems associated with severe illness.
But Frommhold also treats a second group of patients who showed mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms and spent only a short time in hospital, if necessary.
These patients have symptoms of recovery after about one to four months, Frommhold said.
Most are between the ages of 18 and 50 and have no pre-existing conditions, she said. “They are the ones who are usually never sick.”
After recovering from a COVID-19 seizure, these patients suddenly wake up breathless, depressed, and struggle to concentrate, Frommhold said. Some suffer from dementia-like symptoms.
A former dialysis nurse found the kitchen flooded because she forgot to turn off the tap. “Others can’t do homework with their children because they don’t understand the questions on their own,” Frommhold said.
Their symptoms are not always taken seriously by doctors.
Despite hair loss, joint and muscle pain, irregular blood pressure and dizziness, the results of routine tests for these patients usually return to normal.
“They look young, dynamic, high-performing, but they can’t do any of the usual things,” Frommhold said.
Clinic therapists initially focus on stabilizing patients’ breathing. Then work to restore endurance and motor coordination with occupational therapy and postural training. Cognitive therapy and psychological support are also part of the program.
Similar clinics for “long-haul carriers” have sprung up around the world in the last year, including in the United States.. In Germany, such treatment is increasingly offered by the country’s network of more than 1,000 medical rehabilitation centers, 50 of which specialize in lung disease.
“That doesn’t exist in many other countries yet,” Frommhold said.
It is not clear how many people suffer from COVID-19 in the long term, in part because the condition is not yet clearly defined. Scientists are still trying to understand what lies behind the wide range of symptoms reported by patients.
“No two patients have the same experience and vary among patients,” said Elizabeth Murray, a professor of e-health and primary care at University College London.
“The symptoms he is experiencing this week are not necessarily a guide to the symptoms he would experience next week,” said Murray, a former GP. “It simply came to our notice then. makes it very, very difficult for patients. ”
The UK Office for National Statistics said a survey of 9,063 respondents who tested positive for COVID-19 found that more than 20% reported persistence of symptoms after five weeks. For about 10% of respondents who included fatigue, while a similar number reported headaches or loss of taste and smell.
To date, more than 140 million coronavirus infections have been confirmed worldwide, according to a Johns Hopkins University report, meaning that even a small percentage of patients with long-term COVID-19 would suggest that millions could be affected.
“It’s a lot of people in addition to being treated, and no health care system has much spare capacity,” Murray said. She added that the economic impact of so many people leaving the workforce could be devastating, especially as many sufferers are women who also bear a disproportionate burden at home.
Murray is developing a digital program, funded by the National Institute for Health Research in the UK, to treat COVID-19 symptoms in the long term and to reach more patients faster than through traditional rehabilitation facilities, ensuring that no they feel abandoned by the medical system.
Frommhold said a similar program could help Germany cope with the expected long-term growth of COVID-19 patients, but suggested that greater acceptance of the condition would be needed for those who did not fully recover.
“In my eyes, we first need a campaign like HIV awareness, which explains how there are different ways even after recovering from COVID,” she said.
The fact that patients, their families and employers understand that they now have a chronic condition could prevent long carriers from falling into a spiral of depression and anxiety, Frommhold said.
Heike Risch, a 51-year-old kindergarten teacher from the eastern town of Cottbus, struggled to get out of the hospital without help after recovering from COVID-19.
“I felt like I was 30 years old in a short amount of time,” she said.
At the clinic, Risch could not balance a table tennis ball on a racket and go back. He still can’t read a clock correctly.
“You no longer trust your own body. You don’t trust your own head anymore, “Risch said.
However, he hopes to return to work someday. “I like working with children, but I have to be able to concentrate. I have to be able to do two things at once, “she said.
Ravera, the nurse, says she has come a long way thanks to therapy in Heiligendamm and is fortunate to have support from friends and family.
But Ravera doubts that he will return to spend three weekends at the hospital where he worked in Bavaria.
“You do not know when you will be well again. The disease is coming in waves, “she said.
Instead, Ravera plans to use what she learned in detox to help others struggling to breathe again after COVID-19.
“It’s a bit of a journey into the unknown,” she said.
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