Long ICU Stays Lead to Extended Misery for Many Covid Survivors
Advances in critical care spared hundreds of thousands of people from the coronavirus. Yet the life-saving measures often have harrowing after-effects.
Like Kellie McCarthy, three-quarters of survivors of critical Covid illness develop post-intensive care syndrome — a constellation of brain, lung and other physical problems.
Photographer: Kayana Szymczak/Bloomberg
For weeks on end, Kellie McCarthy fought the ventilator pushing oxygen rhythmically into her Covid-inflamed lungs with such ferocity that she was given a slew of drugs to tolerate the invasive treatment.
Muscle relaxants paralyzed her body, while sedatives and opioids calmed her agitation. But even comatose, she was tormented mentally. The reptilian hiss of the tube in her windpipe inspired nightmares of writhing black snakes. Once, she dreamed that her doctor was trying to kill her.