Age: 74.0
Sex: M
Vaccine: COVID19, COVID19, COVID19
Symptoms: Weight decreased, Wheelchair user, Wound closure, X-ray
Clinical narrative: This all started on January 27th, Patient had not been feeling well and had fallen and I had to call EMS to help get him back to bed. He had been getting weak during the previous week. On January 28th he fell again, this time EMS came and I insisted he go to the hospital. At the hospital they did blood work and an Xray, put him on IV fluids to help with the weakness. They came in and advised that he had COVID and gave him some medication through the IV we were told. He was feeling a little better and they did a test on his oxygen level and because of the level he was at they sent us home. He was home getting weak again and on February 16the we went to see Dr in his office because Patient was not feeling much better. had  an exray of his esophagus on that day and Dr gave him his booster shot for COVID.  On March 6 Patient again got very weak,, and fell gettting up from his chair. Again EMS came out and I was beginning to think he may have had a stroke. He was slurring his words a little,  and was still not eating due to the COVID. The EMS took him to Hospital and they admitted him. They did an electrocardiogram, an Ultrasond of both sides of his head and neck to check the blood flow, An MRI to check for a stroke and that was negative. He at this point was not able to get up easily because of weakness. They admitted him and continued care with Physical therapy and conntinued blood work until he was released on March 17th. He came home walking with a walker and was still weak.  He still was not eating. He said everything he put in his mouth just would roll up in a ball and he would spit it out.  He was scheduled for Rehab outpatient the week of March 28th on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The following Monday which was April 4th (I think)he said he just could not get up and go and stayed in bed all day. He still was not eating. That evening when he would not eat I took him back to the Emergency room and they admistted him. The following day Dr came by and said there was nothing he could do about the eating problem and that he could put in a feeding tube if Patient wanted to go that route and Patient agreed.  Surgery was done to put in a Jtube for feeding. They could not put in a normal feeding tube into the stomach because of previous stomach stapeling surgery. The Jtube went directly into the intestine, he was at the hospital for I think 2-3 days and then he was transferred to Rehab. He was admitted there on April 11th. On April 15th I received a call and ws told that his Jtube had come out and they were going to transfer him to hospital because that is who they worked with. He was transferred by Ambulance to hospital. There they did blood work, CT scan, EKG, and Xrays. He arrived there about 6 pm on April 14th and after all the tests they did around 10PM tht day they told us they were transferring him back to Hospital because none of the Physicians wanted to touch him because the surgery was done elsewhere.  They again transported him to hospital around midnight April 15th. He was admitted and Dr and Dr the original surgeon came and Dr took him back into surgery on April 16th, to place a different Jtube in and clean out everything that had leaked out of the previous tube in the cavity. Dr said he wanted him to have a Wound Vac and so he had an open wound at the top of his incision this time. His original wound where the surgery was, was about 8 inches long. The top 4 inches were left open with the wound vac attached. This was attached and changed every 3 days until he passed away. Once the second surgery was completed and he had a couple of days to recover, he was transferred to Rehab. He still could not eat. When this all started, he weighed in at Dr's office on February 16th and his weight that day was 328lbs. He was in rehab from April 18th until May 29th when he passed away. During his stay they would pick him up out of bed with a lift because he did not have the strength to get out of bed himself. They would put him in a wheel chair and take him to do physical therapy in their therapy area. He continued to get weaker. We tried to get him to eat but nothing would work I even made his favorite soup and he would not even drink the broth because he said there was no taste at all. During this time he lost down to 248 lbs at the time he passed away. He just got weaker and even when he talked his words would get mixed up and not make any sense many times. At the end he was having trouble seeing anything. I would try to read to him and he just would not want to hear anything and just wanted to sleep. They were still trying to get him to eat and do some kind of therapy in bed but he was too weak.  This DARN COVID is not something to mess with. Again, he passsed away on May 29th 2022.