From blood purification to leech therapy or trips to salt caves: patients with lung covid are offered the craziest therapies to get rid of their long-term symptoms. “Patients are getting desperate.”
“Leech therapy, acupuncture, bioresonance, skin biopsy or cannabis drops: I’ve tried it all. I would give anything to get rid of this pain, even if it is to have my legs amputated.” Like so many people with long-term health problems after a corona infection, Tanja Coopmans (52) is still looking for a treatment that will allow her to return to her old self.
In the past, Coopmans could hardly sit still. She worked as an educator in an institution, made many beautiful trips, and was always the last on the dance floor when going out. Until she contracted corona at work in October 2020. She spent a week sick on the couch, it seemed like a bad flu. Then she went back to work. She was still not feeling well, but there was an acute shortage of staff. “After ten days it was over. I couldn’t take the pain anymore. I collapsed like a pudding.”
To this day she has not been able to resume her active life from before due to the constant stabbing pains in her back, hips, legs and especially her feet. “I can set my clock to it. In the morning it is bearable. But every time around 1pm it seems like someone is putting a vise in my feet, tightening it harder and harder as the day progresses.” She had to give up her job, she now lives on benefits. She can no longer cycle or drive her own car. She now moves with a walker, or has to rely on transport from friends, family or health insurance. “I feel old, even though I’m barely 52.”
Doctors already knew before corona that a virus infection can lead to long-term fatigue and other symptoms. Nevertheless, the influx of patients with the most diverse complaints – ranging from memory loss, disturbed speech, shortness of breath or muscle pain – caused confusion among doctors after a corona infection. “I often encountered disbelief from doctors,” says Coopmans. “There were even doctors who referred me to psychiatry. Fortunately, the psychiatrist took the time to listen to my story, and he was the first to make the link with my corona infection.”
refunded
Since the summer, people who have severe symptoms twelve weeks after a corona infection have been eligible for reimbursed care. The care plan is drawn up by the general practitioner in consultation with other care providers. Within that trajectory, physiotherapy, speech therapy, (neuro) psychological care and occupational therapy or sessions with a dietician can be reimbursed.
However, to date there is no treatment that can do more than relieve the main symptoms. “It is still unclear what is the cause of these various complaints,” says pulmonologist Johan Clukers, who regularly sees patients with lung covid in the ZNA hospital network in Antwerp. “Patients ask for a treatment that has an immediate effect. But unfortunately there is still no such miracle solution, especially not for a disease that we have only known for three years. Unfortunately, you see that patients then become desperate and turn to unscientific therapies. That is not typical of Covid-19, we have also seen this for some time in patients with metastatic cancer, for example.”
The Dutch newspaper NRC recently reported on how Dutch physiotherapists offer laser therapy, in which the practitioner passes a laser over the patient’s body. According to the manufacturer, this way you can activate the mitochondria in the cells, allowing muscle tissue to recover. A claim for which there is no scientific evidence. According to Rob de Bie, professor physiotherapy research at Maastricht University, cutting the patient open and placing the lasers directly on the organs would be the only way to hit the cell nuclei. “But even then I don’t understand what effect they want to achieve,” he says NRC.
Testimonials about the wonders of laser therapy also come across to Belgium. Coopmans also rented a laser device from a ‘holistic physiotherapist’, for 150 euros per session. She noticed no improvement. Today, the practice she went to no longer recommends laser therapy for lung covid patients. “The results were not great,” says business manager Jeroen. Today he believes more in the effect of bioresonance, whereby the patient’s organs are brought back to the correct vibration with electrodes.
Desperate
It is just one example of the huge range of more or less substantiated therapies circulating in peer groups on Facebook. “From the beginning of the pandemic, we have been receiving emails from providers of numerous therapies, such as vitamin cures, trips to salt caves or blood purification,” says Ann Li, president of the Post Covid patient association. And then there is always a group of people who are so desperate that they give it a chance anyway.”
Yet Coopmans does not feel cheated by the many providers. “I’m not going to shoot anyone because the therapy hasn’t worked. My trajectories in regular medicine were also unsuccessful, I can’t blame anyone for that.” While she continues to search for new therapies, she has also submitted a request for euthanasia. “It gives me peace to know that I don’t have to suffer endless pain if there is no therapy. But I hope it will come.”