Here, I am going to share with you 2 factors that, in my opinion, make nursing home patients more likely to suffer from severe COVID19.
But first, let’s start on the bright side. At least 95% of infected persons will recover and most will never even need to be hospitalized for COVID.
The persons at highest risk for severe outcomes we’ve all heard are those with serious medical problems and the very elderly.
However not everyone with diabetes, or heart failure, or kidney failure, or obesity or even advanced age, is going to get severe COVID19.
And there will be the occasional case of a seemingly healthy person coming down with severe COVID19.
However it seems that nursing home patients have borne the brunt of the deaths, at least in the US.
Why has this been the case?
In my opinion, these 2 factors play a big role:
1. Sedentary lifestyle – this characterizes the life of a nursing home patient. That’s why they are in the nursing home – they are no longer able to care for themselves safely. A good portion of nursing home patients are even bed-bound. Being sedentary often means poor physical state of the body and that includes poor lung capacity. Imagine getting a bad viral pneumonia on top of lungs with poor capacity – there is minimal reserve and so a bad outcome is much more likely.
2. Lack of a strong reason/drive to live – a big part of recovering from disease, or overcoming any adverse life event for that matter, is a strong will/reason to carry on. Unfortunately many nursing home patients are not living their best life. Sadly, many are merely existing. Without that “why” to carry on – the career, the young children to care for, the vacation, the mission trips, etc. – there isn’t that extra fight needs to overcome a severe illness and so a bad outcome is again more likely.
By now many of us have seen persons with medical problems, or older persons, recover from COVID19.
Remember 95% of people recover!
So let’s look on the bright side a little more. 😊
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