New Study Shows Nearly 9 in 10 Covid-19 Patients on Ventilators Don’t Make It
A giant study that examined outcomes for more than 2,600 patients found an extraordinarily high 88% death rate among Covid-19 patients in the New York City area who had to be placed on mechanical devices to help them breathe.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is one of the largest reviews published to date of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in the U.S. The researchers examined outcomes for coronavirus patients who were admitted between March 1 and April 4 to 12 hospitals in New York City and Long Island that are part of the Northwell Health system.
Overall, the researchers reported that 553 patients died, or 21%. But among the 12% of very sick patients that needed ventilators to breathe, the death rate rose to 88%. The rate was particularly awful for patients over 65 who were placed on a machine, with just 3% of those patients surviving, according to the results. Men had a higher mortality rate than women.
Covid-19 causes sudden strokes in young adults, doctors say
(CNN)The new coronavirus appears to be causing sudden strokes in adults in their 30s and 40s who are not otherwise terribly ill, doctors reported Wednesday.
They said patients may be unwilling to call 911 because they have heard hospitals are overwhelmed by coronavirus cases.
There’s growing evidence that Covid-19 infection can cause the blood to clot in unusual ways, and stroke would be an expected consequence of that.
Dr. Thomas Oxley, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, and colleagues gave details of five people they treated. All were under the age of 50, and all had either mild symptoms of Covid-19 infection or no symptoms at all.
“The virus seems to be causing increased clotting in the large arteries, leading to severe stroke,” Oxley told CNN.
“Our report shows a seven-fold increase in incidence of sudden stroke in young patients during the past two weeks. Most of these patients have no past medical history and were at home with either mild symptoms (or in two cases, no symptoms) of Covid,” he added.
(CNN)President Donald Trump says he strongly disagrees with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan to reopen part of that state’s economy, especially by putting beauty salons and other establishments that require close personal contact back in business.
Georgia’s move to reopen its economy is the most aggressive in the US, but many other states are also looking for ways to put people back to work, even while the coronavirus still remains a public health threat.
And a coronavirus model routinely cited by the White House warns that no state should be opening before May 1, and that Georgia shouldn’t reopen until June 19 — almost eight weeks from now.
“It’s just too soon,” Trump said Wednesday at the daily White House news briefing on coronavirus when asked about Kemp’s timetable. “The spas and the beauty parlors and the barber shops … I love them but they can want a little bit longer, just a little bit, not much, because safety has to predominate.”