A Texas trauma surgeon says it is rare for X-rays from any of his patients with COVID-19 to return without dense scars. Dr. Brittany Bankhead-Kendall tweeted that, “Post-COVID lungs look worse than any kind of terrible smoker’s lung we’ve ever seen. And they collapse. And they clot. And the shortness of breath continues … and continues … and continues.”
“Everyone is so concerned about the issue of mortality and it is terrible and it is horrible,” she told CBS Dallas. “But man, for all the survivors and the people who tested positive, this is going to be a problem.”
She has treated thousands of patients since March.
Bankhead-Kendall, an assistant professor of surgery at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, says that patients with symptoms of COVID-19 show a severe chest X-ray every time, and those who were asymptomatic show a severe chest X-ray at 80% of the time.
“There are still people who say, ‘I’m fine. I have no problems’, and you take the chest X-ray and they have a defective chest X-ray, ”she said.
In this photo of a normal lung, smoker’s lung and COVID-19 lung that Dr. Bankhead-Kendall shared with CBS Dallas, the healthy lungs are clean with a lot of black, which is mostly air. In the smoker’s lung, the white lines are indicative of scarring and congestion – while the COVID lung is filled with white.
CBS Dallas
“You will see a lot of these white and dense scars or all over the lung. Even if you are not feeling any problems right now, the fact that it is on your chest x-ray – it is certainly indicative of you possibly will have problems later,” said Bankhead -Kendall.
She said it is too early to know the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on your body or whether the scar will heal, but it is important that if you are short of breath after COVID-19 is gone, keep in touch with your primary care physician.
She adds: “There is no long-term implication of a vaccine that could be as bad as the long-term implications of COVID.”