What he is seeing, however, is a “greatly increasing number of patients with residual disease secondary to Covid”. This is now one of the most common reasons for referral to a pulmonary physician in Erie, he says. He has seen a dramatic increase in this patient group since the beginning of the year. Kinsella believes this will be the most common reason patients are referred to his practice by this summer.
Although the number of acute Covid-19 cases is declining in northwest Pennsylvania, he says, the number of chronic Covid-19 patients – those with so-called long Covid – is increasing dramatically. Not much long-term data is available, as the disease is only a year old, but Kinsella knows five physicians who have contracted Covid-19. One, who is in his 40s, received a double lung transplant last week, he says. Another, a heart surgeon who is originally from Limerick, made a full recovery. An ICU physician has persistent shortness of breath several months in, and two hospitalists have recovered fully.
