Even before the first patient arrived at our doors, a Mount Sinai research team working with CT scans from patients in China noticed that this disease did not look like a normal pneumonia. And once we did start seeing large numbers of patients, other anomalies were quickly evident, including signs that blood clots played a major role, which led to the use of anticoagulation therapy for patients and opened new lines of research to pursue. A separate study showed unique patterns of vascular and thrombosis-induced injury and suggested a unique role for neutrophils in driving acute tracheobronchitis, ARDS, and thrombosis.
We were among the pioneers in reconfiguring bilevel sleep apnea machines at a time when we seemed to be facing a severe shortage of ventilators. We reconfigured our training programs to ensure that trainees were kept safe, fed, and well rested during the crisis. And we gratefully welcomed help from our partners at National Jewish Health, who pitched in at the height of our crisis at a time when their main campus in Denver had not yet seen many COVID-19 cases.
COVID-19 is a disease that can cause damaging aftereffects for a long time, and our Center for Post-COVID Care, the nation’s first, plans to study and treat those patients for as long as they need our care.
I hope that you and your families are well and safe, and that this material helps you in your own struggle with this devastating disease. As always, you may contact me at charles.powell@mssm.edu with any questions or comments.
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Charles A. Powell, MD
Janice and Coleman Rabin Professor and Chief, Catherine and Henry J. Gaisman Division of Pulmonology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
