Covid: doctor recovered, ‘after the virus I could not stand, reborn with rehabilitation’

Pavia, 30 April (beraking latest news Salute) – “Once I recovered from Covid I felt as limp as an octopus, I was a rag and I couldn’t even stand up. It was only thanks to the rehabilitation that I slowly recovered my body”. Speaking is Paolo Geraci, 69, a doctor and former resuscitator at Irccs San Matteo in Pavia, who after his illness undertook a path of respiratory and motor rehabilitation at the ICS Maugeri in Pavia.

“Rehabilitation is not as I imagined, it is not a pulmonary distension – says Geraci – It is instead a path in which time heals the lungs and physiotherapists heal the envelope: strengthening the muscle mass with resistance exercises to effort and other physical activities, this was decisive because in a few days that octopus that could not stand up began to take its first steps, then to walk independently and finally returned home after a month, blossoming back to life “.

“In the Ics Maugeri facilities we treated 5,810 Covid patients – explains Michele Vitacca, head of the Rehabilitation Pneumology Department – and, of these, at least 30% needed respiratory and neuromotor rehabilitation”. These are “patients with severe oxygen deficiency, a feeling of shortness of breath from effort, muscle weakness, impaired physical performance and exercise tolerance with so-called ‘prolonged bed rest from intensive care’ syndromes also related to the practice of ‘pronating’ , that is, positioning in the face to facilitate oxygenation and breathing for those who had had to resort to the use of a mechanical ventilator or high oxygen flows in intensive and semi-intensive therapies “.

“Some studies published by Maugeri clinicians in international journals such as ‘European Journal of Respiratory’ and ‘Respiration’ – underlines Vitacca – have documented the benefit of rehabilitation activities by measuring the respiratory and functional capacity of patients with specific tests, showing how, for the most part part of these patients, all the indices improved during the hospitalization period “.

“Covid – concludes Geraci – taught me that we must be very humble and not believe that we are invulnerable. And that hope, trust and optimism are important tools to help you heal”.