A doctor with coronavirus is giving his followers a day-by-day look at the disease’s symptoms as it takes hold of his body.
Dr. Yale Tung Chen got infected while treating patients at Hospital Universitario La Paz in Madrid, where he works as an emergency physician.
The 35-year-old is live-tweeting ultrasounds of his lungs and a diary of his aches and pains while being quarantined in his home. In exchange for giving the world a first-hand look at the symptoms patients may face, his followers are giving him their well-wishes.
“It meant the whole world to me to receive support from people all around the world,” he told NBC News.
Chen’s symptoms have been relatively mild, and are a reminder that the disease takes a different toll from patient to patient.
Day 1 after his diagnosis brought a sore throat, strong headache and no lung abnormalities, he wrote. He didn’t say whether he had a fever — a symptom many patients have had.
“Day 2 after #COVID diagnosis. Less sore throat, cough & headache (thank God!), still no shortness of breath or pleuritic chest pain. #POCUS update: small bilateral pleural effusion, thickened pleural line & basal b-lines (plaps),” he followed up. For laymen, this means there is fluid in the lung, according to Web M.D. Despite the phlegm, he reported having a normal stethoscope listen.
Today, Chen said that his sore throat and headache have healed. His cough improved, though he did have diarrhea. Fluid was still present in his lungs.
He’s not the only one sharing their struggle with COVID-19. A man in Wuhan, China, spent an agonizing three weeks suffering from the virus in mid-January.
Tiger Ye said he developed a cough, fever and “patchy shadows on the side” of his lungs. “I coughed so bad, my stomach was hurting and my back ached,” he said. He thought he was going to die.
Ye was diagnosed Jan. 17, and was cleared Feb. 7. Jan. 21-26 was “the worst,” he said.