A trauma surgeon in Texas says it is rare for X-rays in any of his patients with COVID-19 to return without dense scars. Dr. Brittany Bankhead-Kendall wrote on Twitter that“Post-COVID lungs look worse than any kind of terrible smoker’s lung I’ve ever seen. And they collapse. And they clot. And the shortness of breath persists … and further … and further “.
“Everyone is so worried about mortality and that’s awful and awful,” she told CBS Dallas. “But man, for all the survivors and the people who gave positive results, this is – it’s going to be a problem.”
He has treated thousands of patients since March.
Bankhead-Kendall, assistant professor of surgery at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, says patients who have had symptoms of COVID-19 always have a severe chest x-ray, and asymptomatic patients have a severe chest x-ray 70 to 80 percent 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.
In this photo of a normal lung, a smoker and a COVID-19 lung that Dr. Bankhead-Kendall shared with CBS Dallas, healthy lungs are cleansed with a lot of black, which is mostly air. In the smoker’s lung, white lines indicate scarring and congestion – while COVID’s lung is filled with white.
CBS Dallas
“Either you see a lot of white, dense scars, or you see it all over your lungs. Even now, you have no problem with being on the chest x-ray – it certainly indicates that you will probably have problems later, “Bankhead-Kendall said.
She said it is too early to know the impact of COVID-19 on your body or whether the scars will heal, but it is important that if you have difficulty breathing after COVID-19 disappears, stay in touch with primary care physician.
She adds, “There is no long-term implication of a vaccine that could ever be as bad as the long-term implications of COVID.”