Gangrene is a type of tissue death caused by a lack of blood supply. Symptoms may include a change in skin color to red or black, numbness, swelling, pain, skin breakdown, and coolness. The feet and hands are most commonly affected. Read on to find out how Covid-19 caused this unfortunate patient to lose her limbs.
In a report published in the European Journal of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery, doctors highlight the severe consequence of blood clotting caused by Covid-19. The case study title “COVID Fingers: Another Severe Vascular Manifestation,” goes into details about how an 86-year-old woman from Italy suffered from gangrene as Covid-19 caused severe blood clotting, which cut off supply to her fingers. Doctors treating her had no other choice but to amputate three of her digits.
Physicians aren’t sure why blood clotting occurs in some people as a result of Covid-19 but simply know that it does. Currently, many medical experts believe that the side effect may be related to an increasingly common immune response to COVID-19, called a “cytokine storm,” which prompts the body to attack both sickened cells and healthy tissues.
There is strong evidence that using anti-clotting therapy may prevent deaths in hospital patients. A new study found that patients who are given preventive blood thinning drugs (prophylactic anticoagulants) within 24 hours of admission to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to die compared with those who do not receive them.
Be Aware of Any Changes
With each passing year into the pandemic, scientists are still finding unanticipated symptoms. Recently, King’s College London researcher Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology, tweeted that one in five COVID-19 patients are reporting less common ills, such as skin rashes, mouth sores and an enlarged tongue, which aren’t included in the CDC’s list of symptoms.
Spector’s speculation comes via data collected by the ZOE COVID Symptom Study in the UK, which encourages Britons to self-report what they experience during an infection. Spector told USA Today that “COVID tongue,” in which tongues of coronavirus patients inexplicably swell, is one of the rarest symptoms he’s observed, “affecting less than 1 in 100 people,” he estimated.
If you believe you have been exposed to COVID-19 or have symptoms similar to COVID-19, you should immediately contact your doctor.