Top doctor reveals the nasty symptoms bedridden patients in Sydney Covid wards are battling - and it's not just breathlessness
Covid-19 patients battling the virus in Sydney's hospital wards are fighting symptoms including unbearable nausea, diarrhoea and severe migraine-like headaches that cause stiff necks and sensitivity to light, a top doctor has revealed.
Lung specialist Dr Lucy Morgan on Wednesday spoke of the toll the Delta strain was taking on her patients' as NSW recorded another 919 cases of the virus overnight.
Dr Morgan, who works at Sydney's Nepean and Concord hospitals, said initial symptoms of the virus are similar to having a cold or flu but then quickly worsen.
Lung Specialist Lucy Morgan on Wednesday urged NSW residents to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as she revealed the crippling symptoms her infected patients were suffering in hospital
'Symptoms are often so mild not to be noticeable - a bit of a sore throat, maybe a bit of a cough,' she said.
'But some people become breathless and dizzy,' she said. 'These other sorts of symptoms that need urgent medical assistance.'
Dr Morgan said anyone who starts feeling either of those symptoms needs to call an ambulance immediately.
'An ambulance is free, your medical care will be free and there will be people who can care for you even if English is not your first language,' she said.
By the time her patients have reached hospital, she said many of them have such bad nausea they cannot eat or drink.
'Many of my patients have a terrible cough, the sort of cough that leaves you breathless and they can't move or speak without the cough becoming really terrible,' she said.
A Covid-19 patient at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital in July. Dr Morgan said some patients are fighting symptoms including unbearable nausea, diarrhoea and migraine-like headaches
'Lots of patients have diarrhoea. Lots of patients have nausea.'
She said another common symptom was 'overwhelming fatigue' - the kind that leave patients unable to leave their bed at all.
'Some of them become increasingly breathless,' she said.
'Initially, just breathless, walking quickly or making the bed, but as time goes by, they become breathless walking or even talking.
'Many of the patients I've been caring for in the last few weeks have a really severe headache - not just a little bit of a headache - but a really severe migraine-like headache that makes you sensitive to light, a stiff neck and takes more than Panadol to treat it.'
Dr Morgan said some patients 'become breathless and dizzy' after contracting the virus - before symptoms further deteriorate and they cannot leave their bed. Pictured is a Covid-19 patient being cared for at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital
Dr Morgan said she had seen families torn apart by the virus and in some cases seen parents treated for Covid-19 in different hospitals to their children.
She called for Australians to get vaccinated to reduce their chance of ending up in a Covid ward.
'This does not have to be you,' she said.
'Two doses of a Covid-19 vaccination will be your suit of armour. It will protect you from getting sick from the virus, from being admitting to hospital and from ending up in ICU.'
Dr Lucy Morgan has previously described the harrowing reality of Covid, with many children being left alone in hospitals to reduce the risk of transmission
The respiratory physician over the weekend made a similarly devastating revelation that infected parents have been forced to leave their young children alone in hospital to avoid spreading the virus to other family members.
'Everyone has a story of family distress,' she wrote on Facebook.
'Several have their partners in other hospitals leaving their small children to be "Covid orphans" in the children's hospital because their grandparents are unvaccinated or sick themselves.
'Please Australia - get vaccinated.'
Dr Morgan has been on the frontlines during the current NSW coronavirus outbreak and has been screening and caring for patients since the beginning of the pandemic.