An ICU nurse in the US made rounds on social media recently after her startling tweets that states how recovering from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) can change a person’s health for the worse.
In her Twitter post, Cherie Antoinette said that surviving the disease does not mean being healthy again, and that the damage the virus has made to the organs of survivors are permanent.
She added that COVID-19 is the “worst disease process” she has ever worked with in her entire career as an ICU nurse.
COVID 19 is the worst disease process I’ve ever worked with in my 8 years as an ICU nurse.
When they say “recovered” they don’t tell you that that means you may need a lung transplant. Or that you may come back after d/c with a massive heart attack or stroke bc COVID makes
— Cherie Antoinette (@sheriantoinette) June 14, 2020
your blood thick as hell. Or that you may have to be on oxygen for the rest of your life. COVID is designed to kill. It is a highly intelligent virus and it attacks everything. We will run out of resources if we don’t continue to flatten the curve.
I’m exhausted.
— Cherie Antoinette (@sheriantoinette) June 14, 2020
“When they say ‘recovered,’ they don’t tell you that that means you may need a lung transplant. Or that you may come back after discharge with a massive heart attack or stroke because COVID makes your blood thick as hell, or that you may have to be on oxygen for the rest of your life.” she said in her post.
READ ALSO: Expert says COVID-19 can severely, permanently damage victims’ lungs
She said that the virus attacks almost every organ, and that if nations don’t continue to flatten the curve, “we will run out of resources.”
Her tweets prompted responses from COVID-19 survivors and their families, noting that they have suffered permanent organ failure after recovering from the disease.
Twitter user @YeahImAlicia, responded to Antoinette’s thread, saying that before she caught the virus, she was a healthy 24-year-old. Now, she said has high blood pressure and constant chest pains.
“I’m a nurse on a COVID floor, I caught it. I am a relatively healthy 24-year-old and could barely walk up a half flight of stairs. My blood pressure sky-rocketed, chest pain was debilitating. I’m 8 weeks out and still feeling the chest pain and shortness of breath. This is no joke,” she said.
Netizen @AndiAllOver, meanwhile, said her healthy 30-year-old co-worker now has breathing issues and constant blood clot after surviving the disease.
“My coworker — an otherwise totally healthy 30-year-old — is still having issues breathing, two full months later. We’ve got patients coming back to the ER after they’re “recovered” because they can’t breathe, or they get a blood clot. It’s so insane,” she said.
A netizen named Sue Mii, meanwhile, said that after surviving the virus, her husband now has permanent damage/
“My husband and I caught COVID-19 two-and-a-half months ago. While my symptoms were mild, he nearly had to be admitted because he couldn’t breathe, and now, a month after he’s recovered, we’ve discovered he has PERMANENT LUNG DAMAGE.
This is not “just the flu.” It isn’t,” she tweeted.
