Grace said that a big reason older people die from the coronavirus is that their lungs fill up with fluid as part of an immune response to the virus.
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Is this really from a doctor?
There are procedures for draining fluid, some of them quite invasive, such as inserting a drain tube into the lung(s).
From what I have read, the compromized/vulnerable groups are dying do to the destructive nature of the virus and run-way inflamatory tissue damage.
“...run-way inflamatory tissue damage...”
Inflammation is an immune response.
Not from the alveoli and interstitium.
the drain tube drains fluid from the pleural slate outside the lungs. there is no invasive way to drain fluid from the airspaces. Please leave the medicine to the professionals
The problem is the immune system overreacts to the virus in many patients and causes what’s called a cytokine storm... In which the body releases a flood of proinflammatory cytokines which attack both diseased and healthy cells in the lungs, damaging the lungs and causing them to fill up with fluid.
That is the very reason that hydroxychloroquine is prescribed for patients with autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis. Hydroxychloroquine regulates the immune response and and prevents too many pro-inflammatory cytokines from being released at one time. Hydroxychloroquine also works to prevent the replication of the virus by allowing cells to absorb more zinc which blocks the replication process.
They can insert a drain into the space between the inner PLEURAL lining of the rib cage and the lungs themselves, called the PLEURAL cavity if necessary for certain conditions but there are no good procedures for taking out fluids that collect in the inner lungs tissues(or interstitial/intercellure tissues and aveolar sacs. A breathing tube can help with exchange of gasses and removal of gook that collect in the main bronchial stems but suctioning can’t get at the interstitial spaces in the lower and edge parts of the lungs and the aveolar sacs become clogged and useless and the lungs thicken and harden with dense infiltrates and the lungs lose elasticity and gaseous exchange space, parts become ischemic and die off and begin to scar. Even if there is recovery, a person can be left with diminished lung capacity because of the scarring and loss of aveolar space needed for good gas exchange.
The reason for the stories for the sudden collapses and die offs you hear about; the patient has probably already been suffering from the pneumonia for a time and when they start exerting themselves, their need for increased o2/co2 goes up but their inflamed lungs can’t get the o2 needed. It’s instant suffocation from general hypoxia or heart attack from general low o2. The heart is already ischemic because of the issue with the lungs and the person sometimes just goes into cardiac arrest and dies!