Doctors are baffled by the mystery of the new COVID-19 side effect. The Guardian reported that some patients are found to be talking and apparently not in distress, even having oxygen levels that are too low that can typically cause unconsciousness or even death, making it a prime concern for doctors.
The phenomenon known as "Happy Hypoxia" is raising questions about how exactly the coronavirus is attacking the lungs and whether there could be a more effective way to treat patients experiencing it.
The baffling mystery of the new COVID-19 symptom
Doctors are reporting patients in the A&E to have 80% or 70% or sometimes below 50% oxygen percentage levels. That is too low compared to the expected normal oxygen saturation levels of at least 95% on a healthy person.
Dr. Jonathan Bannard-Smith, a consultant in critical care and anesthesia at Manchester Royal Infirmary, said that seeing many patients coming to the hospital hypoxic are very intriguing as they have very low oxygen saturation and yet are unaware of it.
This phenomenon is not usual on influenza or community-acquired pneumonia. It is very much more intense and an example of bizarre physiology going on before the eyes of the experts.
While other lung conditions such as pneumonia or a pulmonary embolism could cause severe hypoxia, patients of these conditions would usually appear ill, and they would not be sat up in a bed talking, said Dr. mike Charlesworth, an anesthetist at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester.
Doctors still do not know if this happy hypoxia could cause undetectable organ damage or if it is the body's way of compensating.
Not a good sign
One anesthetist at a London hospital, who spoke anonymously, said that there was one patient who attended the A&E saying she felt cold. Immediately, the doctors put her on the stats probe and found that her oxygen saturation level was 30%. They just thought that was wrong since typical hypoxic patients are likely to have cardiac arrests.
But when a blood sample was taken from her, the blood was very dark and have oxygen levels equivalent to those seen in people adapted to high altitudes. She was placed later on a ventilator, but she died a week later. The doctor said that he had a few patients like this, and sadly the outcomes tend to bad.
Typically, when oxygen supplies fall, organs such as the heart, brain, and other vital organs are placed at risk, and its effect is thought to be cumulative. Patients usually lose consciousness below an oxygen saturation of 75%.
But the fall in oxygen level does not leave people feeling breathless. It is the rising of carbon levels that typically co-occur as the lungs are unable to clear gas as efficiently. However, this response does not appear to be kicking in some COVID-19 patients.
