Kate Garroway

Yes, it's an absolute nightmare for her isn't it? I hope her husband makes a full recovery and returns to her.
I watched the interview and have to say that the symptoms seem so vague in the beginning, which is what makes it all so scary.

I was surprised to hear her husband is now covid free, although, logically it makes sense that he would be.

I hope he recovers, it’s been such a long, long time. Feel so sorry for her and the children.

Yes I saw the interview this morning. Made me cry - poor Kate, she's such a lovely person. Hope and pray her husband recovers from this scourge on our world.

I never had much time for her, before, but I've new found respect for her.

I think the after effects can be devastating for some people and it could take a long time to recover.
We don't know what the long term effects will be.

I watched someone on the local news who has just gone home after weeks in ICU then in a recovery unit, learning to stand, then walk and to talk again.

It's not just the patient, is it, the whole family suffers and needs support too.

Poor poor woman. I've been following his progress and it's been such a long time. How Kate must feel is unimaginable. What a sick man. It's going to take a long time once he's recovered from this.

It attacks people in different ways, as Kate had said, he didn't have a temperature so that's nothing to go by. It depends now on any other indicator that you haven't experienced before but I think the breathlessness would obviously be the sign to look out for.

Best wishes to the lovely family and I hope there's more improvement to come.

I know I've been bleating on about this for weeks, so apologies if I keep repeating myself.

It's been known for weeks that Coronavirus primarily attacks the blood system, causing embolisms. For most, the virus is cleared and the embolisms don't cause permanent damage.

However, for those with blood which is already "sticky", too little oxygen can get to vital organs and pulmonary embolisms can develop, which can lead to no oxygen in the lungs. For those who survive, oxygen starvation to vital organs, including the brain, can be like a stroke.

That's why people with diabetes and high blood pressure are so badly affected, as well as those with impaired lung function.

I watched the interview with Kate Garroway and found it incredibly sad. I'm sure she must know that life is unlikely to return to anything like normal any time soon.

Thanks for that info, growstuff.
I didn't know any of that.

Yes, I think it came across, sadly, that she knows how devastated her husband's body is.

You're quite right growstuff, it is the blood and especially its make-up as in the ethics who have many with group A be it positive or negative.

* ethnics *

Missed this on TV but just listened on MissA’s link so thank you for including it on OP.

It’s just harrowing. Poor Kate, the children and Derek’s parents, and Derek himself, who was fully conscious up to the point of being put into an induced coma.

I sincerely hope there is a happy outcome.

I have a new found respect for Kate too. Thought she gave a very dignified and informative interview. Good luck to them both and her lovely children .

My daughter's partner is a microbiologist and has been working on this for months. At the beginning, it was a puzzle that some people seemed to be hardly affected, yet others were dying. It was also a puzzle that people were having a relapse days after initial infection. The suggested reason for that is that it takes time for the tiny embolisms to cause major oxygen shortages. It now seems that it's not primarily a respiratory infection, which was what was initially thought, although the lungs are affected by lack of oxygen caused by embolisms.

It is also known that ACE2 is the receptor which allows the virus to enter the blood stream. That's why there was concern about taking blood pressure medication (ACE2 inhibitors and ARBs) but it now seems that they might be beneficial, just as ibuprofen (which people were recommended not to take) is now being used under medical supervision as a treatment because it thins "sticky" blood.

WARNING: I'm not a medic, so don't try this at home!

EllanVannin I don't know that blood group has any relevance. It's to do with the consistency of blood.

Diabetics often have too much glucose sloshing around their blood. People with hypertension usually have narrowed blood vessels, caused by plaque. Diabetics very often have both - one causes the other. They also often have kidney damage, which is a further complication.

People with an Indian subcontinent background have a genetic tendency towards T2 diabetes, but nobody is absolutely sure why.

Grwstuff, do you know if there are there any experiments on humans that provide evidence for the thick blood theory?

I imagine such experiments would not be too invasive and would involve statistics based on blood samples to be compared with covid sufferers.

Growstuff

Also, growstuff, those living at high altitudes are less affected by the virus because of the lower oxygen levels in the blood. Their lives function okay on lower levels of oxygen as that's how they live.

Yet here if/when the oxygen levels drop it leaves folk fighting for their breath, except for the really older members of society whose oxygen levels wouldn't have been on the high side yet who have survived ?

As for the grouping, it seems that those who've sadly lost their lives were in the A group as opposed to the O group. There is a correlation in blood groups that those who are more likely to die are A.

That's what my daughter's partner is working on. I don't know all the details and don't understand them all anyway when he gets all techy.

Do you have a source for that EllanVannin? The only source I've ever seen was from the original data from China, but blood groups tend to be regional anyway, so my understanding was that it was biased. Interested and happy to be proved wrong.

Oh great, I’m Asthmatic and I’m A blood group, time to batten down the hatches.

Sorry forgot to put the rest of the post, I feel so sorry for Kate, it’s hard to have a loved one in hospital, worse when you are in the public eye.
As her husband is Covid free, can the family at least visit him I wonder? I do hope so. Poor man.

Here you go:

www.news-medical.net/news/20200603/Blood-group-type-may-affect-susceptibility-to-COVID-19-respiratory-failure.aspx

It's all hypothetical at this stage. There are definitely correlations, but research is on-going.

The observations about embolisms are definitely true and there is very compelling evidence about ACE2, but nobody knows, for example, why some people are more susceptible to all sorts of conditions. For example, there are some obese people who aren't diabetic and have a healthy vascular system, while some fit, slim people have both.

One positive outcome of all this is that scientists and medics might end up understanding more about genetic susceptibility.

I was wondering about visits too Oopsadaisy. I don't know how long infection actually lasts. There could be many people currently in hospital who are no longer infectious.

BTW I'm Blood Group AB, diabetic and have had a heart attack, which is why there's no way I'm not leaving my four walls until the infection rate comes right down.