I think long term lung damage is a given. Pneumonia by itself can damage lungs and pleura. Once a virus enters a lung cell it’s destined to rupture/die. How much of each lung is infected = how many ruptured cells. Will the repair be scar tissue or nice healthy cells? Studies of near drowning and pneumonia patients should be helpful; in some, lung elasticity is permanently affected.
Johns Hopkins says it may take 3 months to over a year for the lungs to recover:
“After a serious case of COVID-19, a patient’s lungs can recover, but not overnight. “Recovery from lung damage takes time,” Galiatsatos says. “There’s the initial injury to the lungs, followed by scarring. Over time, the tissue heals, but it can take three months to a year or more for a person’s lung function to return to pre-COVID-19 levels.”
Top Manhattan ER doc commits suicide, shaken by coronavirus onslaught
https://nypost.com/2020/04/27/manhattan-er-doc-lorna-breen-commits-suicide-shaken-by-coronavirus/
By Elizabeth Rosner and Kate Sheehy
April 27, 2020 | 5:23pm
I think long term lung damage is a given. Pneumonia by itself can damage lungs and pleura. Once a virus enters a lung cell it’s destined to rupture/die. How much of each lung is infected = how many ruptured cells. Will the repair be scar tissue or nice healthy cells? Studies of near drowning and pneumonia patients should be helpful; in some, lung elasticity is permanently affected.
Johns Hopkins says it may take 3 months to over a year for the lungs to recover:
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I had a serious case of Hong Kong Fluey when I was in college. It started with a mild sore throat one morning and got worse fast. By afternoon, I was barely able to breathe(cold air) as I walked to the building my car pool told me to go to, if I got really bad.
I collapsed on the bed in the ladies restroom and they took me to the dr. I already had pneumonia/bronchitis. I felt like the walking dead the rest of the semester. I was hacking and coughing up junk for over a year.
Then, every season that I got the slightest sniffle, I’d wind up with bronchitis for at least 5 years. Seems like there is always something coming in from China/Asian area.