Young and middle-aged people, barely sick with covid-19, are dying from strokes

[milestogo]

Source: Washington Post

Thomas Oxley wasn’t even on call the day he received the page to come to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. There weren’t enough doctors to treat all the emergency stroke patients, and he was needed in the operating room.

The patient’s chart appeared unremarkable at first glance. He took no medications and had no history of chronic conditions. He had been feeling fine, hanging out at home during the lockdown like the rest of the country, when suddenly, he had trouble talking and moving the right side of his body. Imaging showed a large blockage on the left side of his head.

Oxley gasped when he got to the patient’s age and covid-19 status: 44, positive. The man was among several recent stroke patients in their 30s to 40s who were all infected with the coronavirus. The median age for that type of severe stroke is 74.

As Oxley, an interventional neurologist, began the procedure to remove the clot, he observed something he had never seen before. On the monitors, the brain typically shows up as a tangle of black squiggles — “like a can of spaghetti,” he said — that provide a map of blood vessels. A clot shows up as a blank spot. As he used a needlelike device to pull out the clot, he saw new clots forming in real-time around it.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/24/strokes-coronavirus-young-patients/

[Champion Jack]

1. Damn

[Glimmer of Hope]

2. Stay home. This is no joke.

[SheltieLover]

11. This!👆

[Maxheader]

35. Yeah, really..

Read an article about this blood clotting issue..

If I remember, it wasn't being found in all cases of corona...But had the same

extreme clotting characteristics...Stumpy didn't go to the meetings of many

nations..on sharing information on corona..We better hope the scientists

and their bosses, here, aren't swayed by the traitors sick news briefs..

[Faux pas]

3. Sounds

like it's gonna get you any way it can

[Bernardo de La Paz]

33. Not the flu, like some people still think. Anybody can die a horrible death from this. Be safe. nt

[Faux pas]

43. I feel

the sorriest for the victims his cult followers will infect.

You be safe yourself Bernardo de La Paz

[Rural_Progressive]

41. It's a parasite

and it's in a new host. It's not stable and it could potentially go through a lot of changes before it settles into a workable relationship with us.

Not in a parasite's best interest to kill it's host but the dance steps that the host and parasite go through to reach an accommodation can be less than pleasant.

[JudyM]

42. It's fine to kill the host when it's so highly infectious.

It almost seems like it’s AI figuring out how to decimate the human race.

[BComplex]

52. No THAT is really scary.

I just wish we could hurry up and find a way to put this virus out of our misery.

[JudyM]

55. It is one well-adapted virus. Multiple fronts of attack, super-infectious, hides to hitch a ride

to the next host-vector, morphs as it goes along...

[Ghost Dog]

56. This virus can be seen as part of the biosphere's immune system;

Gaia resisting the disease that is populous highly-interconnected urbanised and industrialised human societies.

[JudyM]

57. I keep thinking of that old ad

“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” We’re fooling ourselves.

[BComplex]

58. And Mother Nature seems to be faring better these days, as a result.

"All are punished" (Romeo & Juliet)

[JudyM]

59. Yes, a stark illustration of our negative impact. But is it enough to inspire real economic change?

Imagine if we had the opportunity to retool society to go renewable... and here it is...

[BComplex]

60. I wish we had sane people in the republican party that actually cared about this country and

the world (the environment). I always feel like we're swimming upstream.

[JudyM]

61. Yes, if only! Drinking from the firehose these past few years.

[Faux pas]

44. Whoa

thank you Rural_Progressive, for opening my eyes a little bigger. I never thought of a virus in the parasitic sense. Old dogs can learn new things!

[elleng]

4. OMG!

Wife of a family member, rather distant from me, just died of a stroke, day after celebrating her birthday, within this demographic group I think.

[dweller]

5. this monster is attacking like

an alien invasion
😱

✌🏼

[sheshe2]

6. This virus just won't let us go.

[Delphinus]

38. And I'm

afraid that governors aren't going to look at all these correlations of what is happening when it comes time to open back up. I worry about my husband being called back in to work - me, I think my boss will allow me to work from home as much as I need (only go in once a week), but ...

[sheshe2]

49. I hear you, Delphinus.

Stay safe.

[dixiegrrrrl]

48. It's as if they took every bad side effect of every drug and made a virus from it.

And it's continuing to mutate

[bronxiteforever]

7. Kick and recommend for visibility

[bdamomma]

8. We could have been

ready for this earlier if this fucking idiot did not dissolve the Department for Pandemics, he did not accept test kits from the WHO.

Weird you hear more about opening the economy than about test kits. tRump is committing a massacre on the American people, 51,523 people have died how many more?? This POS needs to contract it.

[progree]

9. Even when they don't have a stroke, there may be cognitive damage

From SheltieLover's post in GD
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213339643

Seniors with COVID-19 show unusual symptoms, doctors say
Published April 24, 2020 By Kaiser Health News
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/seniors-with-covid-19-show-unusual-symptoms-doctors-say/

Older adults with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, have several “atypical” symptoms, complicating efforts to ensure they get timely and appropriate treatment, according to physicians.

COVID-19 is typically signaled by three symptoms: a fever, an insistent cough and shortness of breath. But older adults — the age group most at risk of severe complications or death from this condition ― may have none of these characteristics.

Instead, seniors may seem “off” — not acting like themselves ― early on after being infected by the coronavirus. They may sleep more than usual or stop eating. They may seem unusually apathetic or confused, losing orientation to their surroundings. They may become dizzy and fall. Sometimes, seniors stop speaking or simply collapse.

Sometimes too "out of it" mentally to seek medical care. And nobody checking on them regularly. So they die alone at home.

And it looks like this isn't just a seniors issue.

[appalachiablue]

10. Impt. pts: I don't remember anything like this coming from Europe/Asia--

thanks for posting..

[SheltieLover]

14. Well, one study out of China reports 30 mutations,

some more aggressive than others I read that post here on DU a few days ago

[appalachiablue]

17. Ouch. That one I haven't seen but two others today about

likely mutations, things making a vaccine more difficult or impossible and this beast lasting longer than we planned--

Scary as hell stuff in RL, not only movies...

[SheltieLover]

18. I'll try to find article

Please know it is not yet peer reviewed.

This is horrifying.

[SheltieLover]

19. Chinese report: 30 mutations

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/249039/20200421/breaking-news-covid-19-now-has-mutated-to-over-30-strains-based-on-study-in-china.htm

I see articles at The Hill, NY Post, Jerusalem Times, south China News & this tech site, ranging in age from 1-5 days ago.

One site says 33 mutations.

[appalachiablue]

21. Thanks much, no wonder the stuff I've read- 30 strains?!

[SheltieLover]

22. You are very welcome

Scary stuff.

[ancianita]

25. When we consider that cv builds itself based on DNA of different cells it attaches to, that's how

'mutations' happen. Building from whatever different cells contain that works to replicate itself.

Even within one human, the killing of mutations depends on the immunity system's ability to sort out the one common enzyme that exists across mutations, since cv moves around to various organs in the body. It doesn't stay in the lungs.

[SheltieLover]

26. 😳🤯

TY for explaining. Then 30 is a very low guestimate?

Sorry, non medical person here. 😊

[ancianita]

29. Non-medical person here, too. Just a reader of books on microbes and viruses.

It could be just the estimate for the country it comes from. Given our size and structurally weak scale of pandemic work, we could see more, who knows. We out here are usually the last to know any good news.

The issue isn't mutations, except on our end. Which is scary because no one in the pandemic field here writes much about that.

The issue, in my layman's opinion, of course, is the ability through autopsies (I haven't read anywhere that autopsies are being done, have you? ) to do genetic study of various dead's affected organs and perhaps detect mutations. So that we can develop a good broad spectrum vaccine, and more than a few antibody medicines for treating the sick.

Welcome to DU, SheltieLover!

[SheltieLover]

30. TY for the welcome 😊

No, I have not read of autopsies being done. I think you are right about needing all that data.

[ancianita]

31. Wow, I must have my head examined. You're an oldie here! Or else you've done a lot of posting

since I last read you. Sorry!

I need a drink to clear my head.

[Fiendish Thingy]

27. I would not accept this as the gospel truth

Or any kind of truth. Let’s wait until this study is replicated and verified.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

34. Lots of mutations. nextstrain.org tracks the spread, like how NY got it mainly from Europe

They have a cool map animation:

https://nextstrain.org/ncov/global?d=tree,map&dmax=2020-01-05&dmin=2019-12-26

[flibbitygiblets]

12. with tRump supporters, how could you tell?

[Victor_c3]

15. That kind of sounds like me, and I just turned 40

I suffer from severe PTSD and I almost always relapse bad this time of year and get hospitalized for a month or two as a result. My relapses sound a lot like the atypical symptoms seniors sometimes present, plus the addition of other PTSD specific symptoms.

I sleep all day, don’t eat, get confused, can’t concentrate, I get dizzy and feel detached in addition to the typical PTSD symptoms one would expect. if I hadn’t been dealing with exactly those symptoms for the last several years, I’d be worried that I have Covid-19 and am suffering from some of the associated cognitive issues.

[Hortensis]

36. Geez, Victor. Have you spoken with your doctors about

an alternative to hospitalization ahead of relapse? In any case, I think all most of us can do is plan to act promptly on any negative changes.

[Victor_c3]

39. I've been working on an alternative for years

Albeit with limited success.

I have a lot anniversary dates to various traumatic incidents that I was a part of in Iraq in 2004 between April and the end of June. I’ve been trying to reprogram my brain to think differently about this time of year. Instead of focusing on dread and the past, I’ve been making plans for things like vacations with a lady-friend of mine and major hiking and camping trips with my brother. Unfortunately, Covid-19 has interrupted those plans.

I chug along, stay engaged with my two daughters and two hobbies of mine and generally do the best I can do.

Hospitalization is obviously something I wish to avoid, but it’s not the end of the world to end up in a psych ward. The VA staff are always wonderful to me.

Thanks

[Hortensis]

40. That last is nice to hear. I was just thinking of COVID itself,

but of course your ward would be isolated.

We have a little travel trailer and were seriously considering doing an "isolation" road trip when states started shutting down. The deeper dive into Washington DC we'd planned for this spring was a total no-go, of course. But maybe we'll still do a mini or two not more than a day's driving from home. People are doing it, plenty of campgrounds are open, national forests, state parks, rivers for fishing, hiking trails. Read that someone was told he had to self-quarantine "in their RV for 14 days" upon arrival in OH; didn't look that up to check on it. Reading in a camp chair by a lake while my husband paddles around fishing sounds like it'd meet the requirement, but obviously the kind of thing to know ahead of time.

Since this is a disruption year with patterns breaking all over, who knows? Stay well.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. IIRC another thing the 2009 movie 'Contagion' got right.

Recall the Paltrow's character's autopsy.

[NickB79]

47. You remembered that too, huh?

This is terrifying.

[BigmanPigman]

16. I read this same article an hour ago and the sentence...

"he saw new clots forming in real-time around it" scared the shit out of me. This disease is a mysterious, silent monster.

[Hortensis]

37. This. Me too.

[csziggy]

20. Isn't it pretty much the opposite of Ebola?

Ebola you bleed from every pore and orifice, Covid-19 your blood clots all over your body causing organ failure in unexpected places.

[IronLionZion]

23. Many first responders and essential workers are young or middle aged

this is scary stuff for those folks who can't stay home and are exposed to lots of people every day. Feeling fine at home and then suddenly having a stroke is very bad.

Also pretty exceptional how they can't seem to get enough protective equipment for workers, let alone ordinary people.

[Chemisse]

24. So if there has been a 4x increase in at-home deaths in NYC

And many seem to be from strokes, it suggest that that may be the primary or only symptom for some of the younger victims.

This is really scary stuff!

[PatSeg]

28. That may be the most terrifying

thing I've read so far about this virus. It sounds like a horror film.

[dhill926]

45. kind of like The Andromeda Strain....

this news is really scary....

[PatSeg]

51. Yes, much like that

[SunSeeker]

32. This is terrifying.

from the article:

Mocco, who has spent his career studying strokes and how to treat them, said he was “completely shocked” by the analysis. He noted the link between covid-19 and stroke “is one of the clearest and most profound correlations I’ve come across.”

[NickB79]

46. I'd rather they let me die

If I survived and regained some semblance of my former self, I'd just end up stepping in front of a bus. My worst nightmare is to live the rest of my life intellectually stunted and a burden on my family.

[crickets]

50. This virus is like a nightmare that just keeps getting worse.

Everyone, please stay home and stay safe.

[AntiFascist]

53. Apparently something like this was studied back in 2014 in relation to SARS and MERS...

with some prophetic conclusions:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4267971/

...

The dysregulation of these coagulation/anti‐coagulation cascades can result in worsening end‐stage lung disease conditions, resulting in death.

...

The twenty‐first century has demonstrated that zoonotic events will continue to introduce coronaviruses and other viruses into the human population, and that these viruses have the potential to spread rapidly, cause significant disease in communities and disrupt the global economy. An emerging theme is the connectivity between virus infection, complement and coagulation cascade activation, pro‐inflammatory and profibrotic cytokine responses and disease severity. More studies are needed to unravel the complex interactions between these pathways that can interact to promote or dysregulate wound recovery after life‐threatening respiratory virus infection.

...

[chia]

54. K&R