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Some COVID-19 patients need rehabilitation
The virus doesn’t just affect the lungs in critically ill patients. Doctors say it can attack every organ, including the brain, muscles, and nerves.
PEARLAND, Texas - Micah Sims from Pearland sure is happy to be on the other side of his painful fight against COVID-19. He shares a dramatic story of survival and recovery, following a two-month hospitalization for COVID-19. He's finally home after extensive physical therapy and even had to learn how to walk and talk again.
It took a team at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital in Pearland to get him back on his feet. Micah is only 39 years old and spent more than a month in the hospital, on a ventilator, fighting for his life against COVID-19. He was too weak to go home from the hospital. That's where Encompass comes in, where he spent many more weeks.
"Helped me out a great deal! When I got here, I couldn't even walk or talk, now I have some of my independence back," exclaims Micah.
The virus doesn’t just affect the lungs in critically ill patients. Doctors say it can attack every organ, including the brain, muscles, and nerves. The latest research shows that most ICU survivors will have significant problems with cognition and activities of daily living. We're talking problems with memory and concentration.
"I tell our patients, this is the hardest work they will ever do in their lives. When they are debilitated and unable to do the basic things that we do every day, it's very difficult work they do. We do a lot to help them, but they do the most work to get that back, they're wonderful partners with us to keep at it, which is a very difficult thing to do when you're in the situation that they're in," explains Dr. Natasha Rose with Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital.
Doctors say patients, like Micah, who have been in ICU for more than five days have a 50 percent chance of having a critical illness that causes weakness. That's why he had to turn to rehab for intensive physical, occupational, and speech therapies.
"Seeing a journey like this for a patient who wasn't able to do most of the things we do every day that we take for granted, be able to come to our facility and do better, is absolutely why we come into the field of rehab," says Dr. Rose.
"We want to thank the Sims family for letting us be part of their journey, it's a joy to be able to do it, to help folks that can't walk or talk, within two weeks, help them get back home," smiles Mike Cabiro, the CEO of Encompass Health. "It feels great to be able to go home," exclaims Micah.
For more information about where he received help: https://encompasshealth.com/pearlandrehab
Clinical questions about COVID-19: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/faq.html