Hyderabad: When a COVID-19 patient with no visible symptoms came to Dr. Luqman Ahmed Khan, the man told the doctor that he felt “doomed”. Such a feeling mostly is melodramatic in nature and indicates towards the behavioral aspect of the patient. However, during the patient’s routine examination Dr. Luqman’s was shocked to find that the man’s oxygen (SPO2) levels had dropped to 70 (anything below 90 is considered fatal).
Given the alarming situation, Dr. Luqman asked the COVID-19 got the detailed interrogative history of the patient’s illness. “Medically he was alright and I couldn’t find any signs,” the doctor said, and added that the patient was also made to go through a few tests which they usually make others who have visibly more serious symptoms or whose health condition is worse.
However, before the results arrived, within an hour, the patient passed away. “He had a cardiac arrest despite neither having a history of hypertension or any heart diseases nor any family diseases. The reports showed extremely high values of D Dimer & CRP,” recalled Dr. Luqman, who runs a clinic in Karimnagar district.
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began, lakhs of people have died. Experts have also suggested that many lives perhaps would have been saved if people in the country took the virus more seriously. And Dr. Luqman Ahmed Khan is one of them. Due to cases like the anecdote narrated above, the Karimnagar-based doctor started a Youtube health channel and began uploading videos to create awareness.
A COVID-19 consultant operating in Karimnagar from seven years, he also runs a helpline. His YouTube channel is called ‘Health Tube Dr Luqman’, where he also takes COVID-19 related queries. Dr. Luqman also said, based on his experience, that not seeking medical help in the initial stages and not getting tested are the two main causes for many COVID-19 deaths.
“As a doctor, my experience has been not only vividly clinical but also dishearteningly social, especially after personal retrospective on the analysis of cases, causes of death and their social impact,” he told Siasat.com. Dr Luqman added that the most common cases of COVID-19 positives have displayed conventional signs, as well as symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever, cold, mild cough, loss of smell and taste and fatigue.
“If these are diagnosed at an early stage and treated accordingly, then people are lucky enough to be aware of their illness (and get better after subsequent treatment),” he said. However, the COVID-19 consultant added that those with no usual signs and symptoms of COVID-19, though less in number, are unpredictable medically and have had severe complications.
In fact, Dr. Luqman also opined that the from the perspective of epidemiology, asymptomatic carriers with varied variants of the pathogens are mainly the spreaders of the disease. “The reason why people consult doctors very late is that many patients are afraid to confront the disease. For others, it’s the economic factor, and unfortunately many don’t immediately seek medical help because of conspiracy theories,” he noted.