A pulse oximeter on a patient’s finger measures blood oxygenation. By Jennifer Couzin-FrankelScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.“There is a mismatch [between] what we see on the monitor and what the patient looks like in front of us,” says Reuben Strayer, an emergency physician at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City.
Speaking from home while recovering from COVID-19 himself, Strayer says he was first struck by the phenomenon in March as patients streamed into his emergency room.
He and other doctors are keen to understand this hypoxia, and when and how to treat it.In serious cases of COVID-19, patients struggle to breathe with damaged lungs, but early in the disease, low saturation isn’t always coupled