The drama of the man who suffers the most from the coronavirus in the UK: he has been hospitalized for a year and vomits every day

Jason Kelk is known to be “The patient of coronavirus the most suffered ” from the United Kingdom. The title doesn’t lie: the 49-year-old He has been in an intensive care unit for over a year and vomits every day by the effects of the virus, which “ruined his stomach and his lungs”.

Kelk, a teacher from Leeds, was rushed to a local hospital with a lung infection on April 1, 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic in Great Britain. The doctors’ diagnosis confirmed the suspicions: he had been infected with Covid-19.

The man, who until last year taught computer science at an elementary school in his town, was transferred to the intensive care room and connected to a ventilator just 48 hours later. He hasn’t left the hospital since.

The virus damage to his stomach reportedly led to a gastroparesis, which causes daily episodes of vomiting due to the inability of the stomach to empty normally. He remains so weak that he still cannot walk without help.

the long CovidAs they call it, this includes shortness of breath, mental confusion, and muscle pain. It affects one in ten people with the disease, according to estimates. Extreme cases, like Kelk’s, are very rare.

The man’s wife, Sue, said he had made “great strides” over the past two months and that doctors removed his respirator in early April. On a fundraising site set up to buy a television for his bedroom, his wife said: “He has been without mechanical assistance for four weeks, we don’t know when he will be able to return home.”

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“Jason still has a tracheostomy (opening in his neck for a ventilation tube) and he continues to vomit every day. Your kidneys, stomach and lungs are ruined“, He added.

The NHS England website explains that the gastroparesis It is triggered because food is not properly emptied from the stomach, causing vomiting. There is “no obvious cause” for the disease, but it may be linked to complications from surgery and type 2 diabetes, which Kelk suffers from.

But the Yorkshire Evening Post, who interviewed him last month, reported that was linked to stomach damage caused by the virus itself. Several studies suggest that Covid can also disrupt the digestive system, and some scientists ask health authorities to recognize diarrhea as a possible symptom of Covid.

“For a long time I was told it would be a matter of whether Jason gets home, not when. Now it really looks like it’s a real possibility, ”added Sue, who has only been able to see her husband in person a few times due to the restrictions. There are hopes.