Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips Discusses Before And After Photos Of Nurse Who Survived Virus
KEILAR: A San Francisco nurse who contracted coronavirus is sharing what it did to his body after being hospitalized for six weeks. This is Mike Schultz about a month before he got sick. On the left, of course, right in the recovery ward, several weeks later. He used to work out and a healthy 190 pounds and now 140 pounds and his lung capacity slowly coming back but took a hit through this. Schultz said he felt so weak he could barely hold the phone to take that picture on the right. And when he woke up, he thought he'd only been in the hospital for one week, when he had been in the hospital for six. Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, CNN medical analyst and chief clinical officer of Providence Health System. And she's joining us now to talk about this. Doctor, that change, this is getting so much attention because it's just undeniable. He looks like a different person, right? He was intubated for 4.5 weeks. What does that tell you about the toll this virus takes on your body and I know you've seen some of this.</s>DR. AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Thank you, Brianna, for asking. And it's not just the virus but staying in an ICU is really hard on the body and we've known for a long time there's a condition called ICU associated weakness people are prolonged on a ventilator. And by the way, they're put into a medically induced coma because it's not a pleasant sensation to have to live through. Two big things happen. One is that you get something called a catabolic state where you break down your own muscles and deconditioning. You are at complete rest. You're not moving around. So your muscles get super, super weak. And at the end of that, what happens is what my Kentucky father-in-law would describe, weak as a kitten, and you really have no energy left to move because you have basically really removed most of your muscle strength during that time while you're in bed.</s>KEILAR: And can you speak to something we've heard more experts talk about, for people like this nurse, he wakes up, thinks he's on the vent for a week, he's been in the hospital for six weeks instead. The long-term mental health implications of going through something that is arguably for so many people, very traumatic.</s>COMPTON-PHILLIPS: It is very traumatic. The other thing people in ICUs get besides incredibly weak is PTSD because they lose chunks of their life and the trauma on the body of being put on a ventilator and some people having to be put on blood pressure support medicines, that you can actually have lasting damage to both the brain as well as your ability to regain your strength long-term. And so it is a long road back. So not only the nurse that you have shown pictures of, but every single person in the ICU, getting out of the hospital is step one on the road to recovery.</s>KEILAR: It's not just the end of it, right? It's the beginning of a new thing for them. The mayor in New York, Bill De Blasio, just reported childhood vaccination rates in New York City have been falling dramatically, down 63 percent overall, especially among younger children. I think we I think we can understand that some parents have been hesitant to take their kids to the doctor's office for their normal well child visits, but what would your advice be to them and what are your concerns about this?</s>COMPTON-PHILLIPS: My advice now is now that we're on the backside of wave one, now is the time to go catch up, catch up with all the care you need. And it's not just childhood vaccines that we need parents to get their kids in and get them now. But it's people who need their blood pressure, saying come on back. Don't let a second wave of catastrophe from this virus be that all the other preventative conditions we know we can help get out of control because we've put off things that we know we should. So time to go in and get those shots.</s>KEILAR: Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, thank you.</s>COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Thank you so much.</s>KEILAR: A dire warning from the World Bank that this crisis could push 60 million people into extreme poverty around the world. Plus, Russia is set to receive a major shipment of ventilators from the United States. One of the world's most iconic theatres could be forced to shut down.