Doctors Terrified Of Blood Clotting And Thickening Causing Strokes In Coronavirus Patients

New things about COVID-19 are coming to light each day it seems, and living in a world affected by it, scientists and researchers are only too keen to learn all that they can about it.

According to a report by Reuters, doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City noticed something strange happening to a COVID-19 patient's blood.

Naturally Savvy

Patients are reportedly exhibiting signs of blood thickening and clotting in different organs of their bodies. Doctors have termed this condition as alarming as it is something fairly new. Doctors from different specialisations are figuring out how the blood is clotting in different organs of the body.

At Mount Sinai, nephrologists have noticed kidney dialysis catheters getting plugged with clots. Pulmonologists monitoring COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilators have seen portions of lungs were oddly bloodless. Neurosurgeons confronted a surge in their usual caseload of strokes due to blood clots, the age of victims skewing younger, with at least half testing positive for the virus.

Dr J Mocco, a Mount Sinai neurosurgeon told The New York Times, ¡°It¡¯s very striking how much this disease causes clots to form." He also added that some doctors think that COVID-19 is more than a lung disease. He informed how a stroke was a young patient's first symptom of COVID-19.

After doctors discussed this new development, they came up with a different protocol. Patients are now given high doses of blood-thinning drugs in order to prevent future clotting.

Dr David Reich, the hospital president said, ¡°Maybe, just maybe, if you prevent the clotting, you can make the disease less severe."

AFP

However, the new treatment will not be used on high-risk patients because blood-thinners can pose a threat to bleeding in the brain or other organs. In the last three weeks, Dr Mocco has witnessed 32 stroke patients with large blood blockages in the brain which is double the number for that period.

Five patients out of those were young, under age 49 and had never shown any risk factors for stroke. He added that "it was crazy and very, very atypical."

At least half of the 32 patients would test positive for COVID-19, Dr Mocco said.

On the other hand, Dr Hooman Poor who is a Mount Sinai lung specialist found himself working with 14 patients on a ventilator. According to the report, the patients' lungs did not appear to be stiff but instead it looked like blood circulation wasn't happening freely through the lungs with each breath.

LA Times

COVID-19 has claimed 184,263 lives all over the world till now.