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Corona long-term damage: "I forget everything"

2020-10-20T07:55:25.202Z


Pain, listlessness, memory loss: even weeks after a corona infection, many patients feel sick. Visit to the Heiligendamm Rehabilitation Clinic.


Read the video transcript here arrow up arrow down

"

And again, push me away. Done soon.

"

Thomas Thielen has not been Corona positive for months, but he is far from healthy.  

Thielen was among the German tourists who were probably infected with Corona on a ski holiday in Austria in March.

Initially, he did not show any cold symptoms and therefore did not initially think of Corona.

He survived his infection at home in the voluntary quarantine.

His lungs are severely damaged because of the shallow breathing caused by the disease, and new long-term effects of his illness keep emerging. 

Thomas Thielen / Corona patient 

"

There is always something new to be added. First you struggle with your breath, then comes the next one. Then the next one comes. I forget everything. That means you can imagine that as an entrepreneur. The brain is the greatest weapon, Also as a sales person, that you can remember things, that you know which networks I can create and where. But here I look 50 times at my therapy plan, which actually only says seven points per day. I don't get it on the chain

. " 

Before his illness, Thomas Thielen was very athletic.

He ran a lot and swam long distances.

That is out of the question at the moment.

His sense of balance is badly disturbed and he has pain all over his body.  

Thomas Thielen / Corona patient 

"

It is a constant pulling, stinging all over the skin. In between it stings more in the chest area, of course, but sometimes it is the case with me that I stand in the shower in the morning and howl because the first jets of water cause pain on the skin, and that wasn't the whole time either.

 " 

Thomas Thielen is one of numerous former Covid-19 patients in the Median Clinic in Heiligendamm.

Here people fight their way back to life after surviving a corona infection.

Including Stefan Grzenia.

He was infected in March during a skiing holiday in Ischgl.

He still cannot breathe properly, he suffers from joint pain and difficulty concentrating.  

Stefan Grzenia / Corona patient 

"

That you just can't concentrate from your head anymore. You don't even want to talk anymore. Then you shut up. I just want to have my peace, because I just can't follow any more to process this up here and to continue a meaningful conversation because you notice that you are completely overwhelmed when it comes to things that the brain can no longer process all this input

. "  

The chief physician in the respiratory diseases department at the rehabilitation clinic in Heiligendamm, Jördis Frommhold, knows this problem from well over 100 other corona patients.

It is by no means only elderly people with a severe course of the disease.  

Jördis Frommhold / Chief Physician  

"

We notice extreme reductions in performance. Much, much stronger than, for example, after influenza illnesses. We see neurological problems that occur, including the most varied types of paralysis, from sensory disorders, but also to cognitive limitations, memory disorders, memory gaps, word-finding disorders. In other words, symptoms that seem dementia, sometimes. And all of this in patients at an internistically young age between 35 and 65, ultimately in their prime, often without previous illnesses. Often well trained.

Frommhold is a pulmonologist and helps patients to overcome the primary damage caused by the acute course of infection.

It is not only the patients who have been ventilated that have serious consequential health problems.  

Jördis Frommhold / Chief Physician  

"

I think all of our patients wouldn't say I'm on the cure, but I'm fighting my way back to life here. And that's exactly how you have to see it. That's the problem that many of our Covid patients supposedly look healthy but they are not

. " 

With the steadily increasing corona numbers, there will probably be even more patients in the future who will still struggle with complaints months after the acute illness.

Research into the phenomenon is still in its infancy. 

Thomas Thielen / Corona patient 

"

The disease is treacherous because it may also cause a lot of things, even among the younger ones, who may not be noticed at all, who are not yet acute. That's why I think that the young people are already paying attention You don't have to do without everything. But it's so simple, my God: keep your distance, put on your mask

. "  

In any case, Thomas Thielen is convinced that if there had been a mask requirement back in March, he might be completely healthy now.  

Source: spiegel

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