COVID Patients with Breathing Difficulties Need to Get Help ASAP

Shanna Pott

While there is the real possibility that COVID patients might need to be oxygenated at home because of the overcrowding at the hospitals, Dr. Shanna says patients may need to get reassessed by a doctor. She warns that waiting too long after breathing becomes labored can mean the difference between a safe, quick recovery and a complicated road –or worse.

Dr. Shanna Pott, Medical Practitioner, Belize Healthcare Partners

“I would always recommend that they get a pulse oximeter and keep track of their saturation, which is the level of oxygen circulating in the blood and that is very, very important. At that point because the minute that starts to dip it’s when you know, you need to come in and be reevaluated.  You might need a chest x-ray or a CT scan to determine if you’re developing pneumonia and that’s important to catch in the very beginning so that you have a better outcome. Because when it’s completely taken over, then is when it’s harder for us, the patient, and those are the patients that tend to end up ventilated.”