Why did these Chinese doctors' skin turn black after coronavirus treatment?
The coronavirus continues to spread to people around the world. Outbreaks are just beginning in some areas, while in others, such as China's Wuhan City, the final stretch is finally being reached.
The city approximately a month ago reported significant decreases in COVID-19 cases until the contagion was cut. Now, they are in a relatively stable situation with some measures still in place to prevent a second wave of infections.
However, this does not imply that the surprises for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus have ended. This time, a puzzling news has reached the world from the Chinese news channel CCTV . At Wuhan Central Hospital, the skin of a pair of Chinese doctors has noticeably darkened after receiving COVID-19 treatment.
A little context
Dr. Yi Fan and Dr. Hu began caring for patients at Wuhan Central Hospital since January this year. Both were colleagues of Li Wenliang, the doctor who raised the first alarm about this new strain of coronavirus.
By January 18 they were also diagnosed with the disease. Both developed severe cases of it and were transferred to intensive care. There, a treatment was applied to combat the symptoms of COVID-19 and try to stabilize their condition.
Additionally, both had to spend periods of their hospital stay connected to ECMO life support machines. These teams were in charge of guarding their active vital signs by replacing the functions of the heart and lungs to keep the blood flowing and with stable oxygen levels.
Finally, the doctors have managed to recover from the disease. But, after all this long process that kept them in intensive care until this April, a new event came to cause confusion: the skin of both has darkened several shades.
How did this happen?
Apparently, the treatment they were subjected to in order to deal with COVID-19 also caused gradual liver failure. Basically, these resulted in liver complications that could be the cause of the strange color change in their skins.
However, this is simply a preliminary explanation presented by CCTV. Therefore, it may be necessary to wait for an official statement to know in more detail the reasons behind this modification of melanoma in the body of both doctors.
What was the treatment administered?
Unfortunately, a detail that was not reflected in the report is the type of medication, or the combination of these that was used in the patients. In fact, there is no information regarding the treatment to which the doctors were subjected. So, for now, it is not possible to adequately investigate whether these medicines have been the causes of such a curious body reaction, or how they could have caused it in the first place.
But for now the doctors are recovering, but suffer side effects
Both health professionals are 42 years old and are fighting the side effects of the disease. For his part, Dr. Li Fan has shown marked improvements and can move freely in his hospital bed. He has already left the intensive care unit behind, but is still under review and trying to regain the ability to move around on his own.
For his part, Dr. Hu has seen more complications on the road to recovery. To date, he has been in the hospital for 100 days and has not yet left intensive care. He had to spend more time connected to the ECMO machine and for almost a month he even lost the ability to speak. Only on April 11 did he recover this ability, since then, the doctors who treat him report that he has not stopped trying to start conversations with them.
It is believed that, as the skin color change possibly occurred due to poor liver function triggered by the treatment, now that doctors are no longer receiving it, the failure should gradually subside. So, the strange darkening of your skin should also disappear naturally over time.