Surgeon notices post-COVID-19 lungs have more scar tissue than smokers' lungs

A trauma surgeon is giving the glimpse into the long-term affects COVID-19 can have on a person's lungs, including dense scarring.

Texas trauma surgeon Dr. Brittany Bankhead-Kendall has treated thousand of patients since March.

She says post COVID-19 lungs look worse than smokers' lungs.

"I don’t know who needs to hear this, but “post-Covid” lungs look worse than ANY type of terrible smoker’s lungs we’ve ever seen.

And they collapse. And they clot off.

And the shortness of breath lingers on... & on... & on."

Other doctors are reporting similar results - some have even seen scarring in former patients who had no symptoms of the virus, and say they feel fine.

“We're seeing people that end up in the ICU for weeks, even months. And if you're in the ICU for weeks or months, there's no way you're not going to have a very long and protracted recovery,” Dr. Joshua Denson, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tulane told 4WWL.

Researchers discovered that more than three out of four people who recovered from COVID-19 reported serious effects for months after their recovery.

Dr. Bankhead-Kendall says not every coronavirus patients has had scarring, and she doesn't encourage those who've had the virus to go get an X-Ray. What she is encouraging is getting the vaccine, once available.

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