More than three years after the start of the pandemic, many COVID-19 survivors continue to struggle. Some, especially those who became so severely ill that they were hospitalized and unable to breathe on their own, face lasting lung damage.
To better understand the long-term impact of COVID’s assault on the lungs, The New York Times spoke with three patients who were hospitalized during the pandemic’s early waves, interviewed doctors who treated them and reviewed CT scans of their lungs over time.One patient spent time connected to a ventilator; the other two were so debilitated that they required months on a heart-lung bypass machine called ECMO.
Marlene Rodríguez was 34 weeks pregnant when she contracted COVID in December 2020. Her water broke 10 days later, and doctors delivered a healthy baby by C-section. But Rodríguez’s condition worsened. Many patients who experienced such severe lung damage early in the pandemic did not recover. Many died from a combination of direct injury by the virus and storms of inflammation incited by the immune system’s attempts to battle the infection. These three patients have been able to regain lung function to varying degrees, but the differences in their experiences reflect how unpredictable COVID’s impact can be.
All three patients were listed as candidates for lung transplants, an option doctors hope to avoid because patients require immunosuppressive drugs and often die within five to 10 years after transplant. Now, doctors say Kennedy and Rodríguez probably won’t need transplants, but Muñoz may need one eventually.
Muñoz’s forced vital capacity has increased to about 43% from 29%. Kennedy’s has increased to 59% from about 38%. Rodríguez’s has increased to 55% from 39%. Nearly two years after his infection, he cannot work and needs round-the-clock oxygen at home. He has developed pulmonary high blood pressure, a serious condition of high blood pressure in blood vessels leading from the heart to the lungs.“Most important, you’re alive,” Raymundo said.“I remember telling my wife to tell my children that I loved them,” he said. And he recalled being on the ventilator while his wife, Gayle, read aloud from one of his favorite books, “The Screwtape Letters.
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