Rohit Shishodia
A multi-disciplinary approach adopted by neurologists and doctors at the Emergency of Delhi’s Apollo Hospitals managed to save the life of a 40-year-old male who suffered from severe Covid pneumonia and acute posterior circulation stroke simultaneously.

The patient was managed with stroke guideline therapy as well as supportive care for Covid pneumonia, including antiviral and antibiotics. He was worked-up for various causes of young stroke.

A resident of Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, he suffered from Young Stroke, a medical term used for people under age of 50 suffering from stroke. On being admitted in Emergency, he also tested Covid positive. An avid smoker, the patient also had pre-existing health conditions like diabetes and hypertension.

The patient had been complaining of light-headedness, headache and weakness of the right side of his body, accompanied by slurring of speech and blurred vision, for over 24 hours.

After his condition worsened with abrupt vertigo, followed by recurrent vomiting and altered consciousness, he was admitted to the Emergency on July 4, 2020.

Dr Vinit Suri, Senior Consultant, Neurology, Apollo Hospitals, said “The patient had suffered from a large posterior circulation stroke involving bilateral vision areas and bilateral thalami leading to severe blindness and weakness of all 4 limbs. Additionally, his condition was complicated by Covid pneumonia which resulted in the need for ventilator support.”

Dr Priyadarshini Pal, Emergency Head, Emergency and Critical Care, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said, “When admitted to the emergency, he was immediately put on life support systems. With severe stroke and Covid pneumonia, the team needed to act fast.”

“Timely medical intervention helped us stabilize his health for both stroke and Covid 19 within a week. Appropriate management with early stabilization, prevention of worsening of his condition helped him recover fast and within 4 weeks he was discharged in a healthy condition on August 2,2020” added Dr Pal.

The doctors stressed the importance of not delaying treatment for fear of Covid 19 and the importance of seeking timely medical intervention for health risks that can be lifelong or fatal.

They further said that the patient's condition would have gone out of hand if there was any further delay in treatment.

The doctors pointed out that while recent reports have suggested an association between Covid 19 patients and stroke with some suggestion that Covid positive patients may experience stroke owing to inflammatory reaction to the virus, further in-depth research is required to confirm the correlation between Covid 19 patients and strokes.