Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Blood-Clotting Complications Emerge As Just Latest Strange Way COVID-19 Is Upending Medical Expectations
The Washington Post: Blood-Clotting Complication Is Killing Coronavirus Patients, Doctors Say
Craig Coopersmith was up early that morning as usual and typed his daily inquiry into his phone. “Good morning, Team Covid,” he wrote, asking for updates from the ICU team leaders working across 10 hospitals in the Emory University health system in Atlanta. One doctor replied that one of his patients had a strange blood problem. Despite being put on anticoagulants, the patient was still developing clots. A second said she’d seen something similar. And a third. Soon, every person on the text chat had reported the same thing. (Cha, 4/22)
CNN: Covid-19 Causes Sudden Strokes In Young Adults, Doctors Say
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. (Fox, 4/22)
Reuters: Alarmed As COVID Patients' Blood Thickened, New York Doctors Try New Treatments
Signs of blood thickening and clotting were being detected in different organs by doctors from different specialties. This would turn out to be one of the alarming ways the virus ravages the body, as doctors there and elsewhere were starting to realize. At Mount Sinai, nephrologists noticed kidney dialysis catheters getting plugged with clots. Pulmonologists monitoring COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilators could see 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. (Allen, 4/22)
CNN: Seniors With Covid-19 Show Unusual Symptoms, Doctors Say
Older adults with Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, have several "atypical" symptoms, complicating efforts to ensure they get timely and appropriate treatment, according to physicians. Covid-19 is typically signaled by three symptoms: a fever, an insistent cough and shortness of breath. But older adults — the age group most at risk of severe complications or death from this condition ― may have none of these characteristics. (Graham, 4/23)
