Mostly younger patients at Calgary COVID-19 long-hauler clinics

A respirologist says some patients are surprised to see persistent post-COVID symptoms, months after their infection. Crystal Laderas reports.

CALGARY — Respirologists running a post-COVID clinic in Calgary are seeing more young patients with lasting coronavirus symptoms than in any other age group.

Dr. Rachel Lim, a pulmonologist and clinical assistant professor at the University of Calgary, says a lot of the patients she is seeing at the clinic are people in their 40s or younger.

“We do obviously see patients that were post-ICU, post-hospitalization,” she said.

READ MORE: ‘COVID long haulers’ continue to look for answers months after initial infection

“But I also see a large proportion of patients who had what some might consider mild infection where they never had to go to the hospital with their initial infection. Yet, they’re having very severe symptoms now.”

Lim and a team of respirologists set up long-hauler clinics at the Peter Lougheed and Rocky View hospitals earlier this year to treat and study the lasting impacts of COVID-19.

They’re testing to see if lung diseases have developed or worsened, in some cases sending patients home with oxygen tanks for shortness of breath.

Lim says people have reported over 50 different symptoms that have stuck around long after they were infected.

“The most common symptoms that I see in real life and that’s reported in the literature include things like significant fatigue, breathlessness or shortness of breath, reduced exercise capacity, other things like coughs, persistent taste and smell abnormalities, it’s quite a long list actually.”

READ MORE: 60% of Albertans 12+ now partially vaccinated, Stage 2 of reopening plan could begin June 10

She says a lot of patients that are referred to the clinic are surprised that months after their infections, they’re still feeling unwell.

And a lot of the worry here, is all the unknowns are leading to long-haulers who don’t know they should be treated.

“I’ve certainly had patients in my clinic who tried to push themselves to go back to work and I think to their detriment. I assessed them and I see how severely impaired they are.”

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