Doctors are seeing a terrifying new condition among some coronavirus patients that is making it harder to treat them. These people seem relatively well – alert and apparently recovering – before suddenly dying of what medics are calling “silent hypoxia.” Their lungs aren’t supplying enough oxygen to keep them alive, but they show none of the usual signs of respiratory distress.
They don’t gasp or pant for breath, but they are drowning. ER doctor Richard Levitan wrote about his experiences in the New York Times.
He described how almost every patient he sees has Covid-19. “Even patients without respiratory complaints had Covid pneumonia,” he said.