Do not take shortness of breath lightly: Doctor cautions Covid-19 patients
Complaints of shortness of breath in the current round of Covid-19
should be taken seriously and people should not remain under the
illusion that they will get oxygen in their homes when they have
difficulty in breathing, said Prof. Raminder Pal Singh Sibia, Head,
Department of Medicine, Government Medical College, Patiala and Rajindra Hospital.
Dr Sibia said, "Around 85 per cent of infected people do not have any symptoms of coronavirus
but the rest have severe symptoms, including shortness of breath, fever
and a variety of other symptoms, which can be life-threatening if
ignored."
Dr Sibia said that although Covid is incurable, the
infection can lead to many other symptoms of death in the patient, so
people do not have to believe in any kind of rumours and avoid domestic
therapies. “The symptomatic patient should be immediately shifted to the
nearest Government Health Center
or tertiary Government Hospital. The only reason for the high number of
deaths at present was that by the time the patient came to the
hospital, he had already suffered a lot. The patients suffering from
shortness of breath are given oxygen at Rajindra Hospital through
various methods, which is not an easy task to do at home. If the patient
has a slight difficulty in breathing, an oxygen face mask is applied
and if there is still a difficulty, the ventricle is monitored
continuously by applying 30 or 50 per cent oxygen.”
He added, “But if the condition still does not improve then NRM (non-breathable mask) is used at the rate of 100 per cent oxygen at the rate of 10 or 15 liters. This is followed by high flow nasal cannula, through which oxygen is applied at high pressure and if it does not work properly, then bipap method applied without inserting a tube into the throat. In most critical patients, a pipe is intubated into the throat to provide oxygen through a ventilator and is constantly monitored.”
Dr RPS Sibia said that under the Mission Fateh launched under the leadership of Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh, all the treatment facilities
for the patients were available free of cost in the Covid Care block
set up at Rajindra Hospital for the treatment of Covid-19 positive
patients. He said that there are expensive tests for the patients
including D-dimer, procalcitonin, X-ray, CT scan, dialysis, expensive
injections like blood thinners tulsi, etc. being provided free of cost.
Dr
Sibia finally appealed to the people to rush symptomatic and comorbid
Covid patients to the hospital for treatment in time as they need
treatment immediately and not to risk their lives by believing any
rumors. He said most of the case, in which deaths have been reported,
patients were rushed to Rajindra Hospital in a critical condition. He
said that under 'Mission Fateh', doctors, paramedics and every staff and
officer are working hard to defeat Covid-19.
labels- breathlessness, COVID-19, D-dimer test, procalcitonin, X-ray, CT scan,bipap method , nasal cannula, oxygen, ventilator,