Medical experts say 25 percent of COVID-19 patients experience symptoms long after being infected with the virus.
“What we are looking for are patients who are apparently not coming back to life,” said Dr. Dennis McGorry with St. Luke’s University Health Network said.
The medical community calls the people ‘long guards’.
To address the growing number of long-term cases in the Lehigh Valley, St. Luke created a COVID-19 recovery clinic.
According to St. Luke’s, about 85 percent of the long-time guards are excessive. Breathing problems, joint and chest pain, sleep problems, mental retardation and brain fog are also common.
Anxiety and depression are also a factor, as well as anxiety about irregular heartbeat.
“We have developed protocols and applied them in our primary care team to make sure we do not miss one of these very important medical problems,” McGorry said.
St. Luke says the clinic contains medical experts from a wide range of fields, including physical and occupational therapy, and COVID support groups.
“We truly believe that we are at the beginning of this. And that there is much more to be found out and much more that we can do,” Dr. Jeffrey Jahre told St. Louis. Luke said.
Consult your doctor for more information on the COVID repair clinic.
If you do not have the St. Luke network does not have, you can call 866-785-8537 option 7.
St. Luke says it will work with all providers to make sure long haulers get the treatment they need.