Tasmanian doctor explains what it’s like to suffer from coronavirus

A Tasmanian doctor explains how the coronavirus disease works in the body and says we need to immediately “prepare, prepare, prepare” to prevent the virus’s spread.

CORONAVIRUS deaths are cruel.

If you are among the 20 per cent of patients to develop a viral pneumonia, your lungs will start filling with a mixture of phlegm, blood and saliva.

It’s difficult to breathe and you may need a ventilator – in an intensive care hospital bed – to push oxygen into your lungs.

You might get better. Or you might be one of the 5 per cent of cases that experiences fatal respiratory failure as you effectively drown in your own inflammatory fluids.

You could also die from septic shock after the virus spreads through your body and shuts down your organs, a painful condition where sufferers often lose consciousness first.

It happens quickly – within five to seven days of your first symptoms like a sore throat, fever and cough – and you could find yourself quickly moved from hospital to isolation to an intensive care unit.

Bastian Seidel, a Huon Valley GP and health advocate currently working on Bruny Island, said explaining what coronavirus does to the body was complicated as experts were still learning about the disease as it emerged across the globe.

“The main concern is it’s going to kill people. If you compare it to influenza and you get a bacterial infection, it’s the bacteria that can kill you. It’s having another infection on top of the virus that can kill you, it’s the complications,” he said

“With coronavirus, it’s a completely different question – it’s the virus that kills you. Otherwise we’d be able to treat it with antibiotics.”

Dr Seidel, a Labor candidate taking time off from his campaign to help during the current health crisis, said medical professionals ware calling COVID-19 a “killer virus”.

“It’s not a good infection to have based on the reports that we are receiving,” he said.

“On the reports people are receiving from Italy, there’s a reason the doctors are so distressed because they’re making decisions on who should get the respirators and who shouldn’t.”

Dr Bastian Seidel aid medical professionals are calling COVID-19 a “killer virus”. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

He said there was currently “a bit of optimism” in Tasmania, with only 10 confirmed cases and residents likely thinking “it will be fine”.

“I think if you lived in Italy, you would take it very seriously, or New York or Wuhan province, you would take it seriously,” he said.

“We need to prepare, prepare, prepare … we just don’t know how quickly it’s going to peak, we don’t know.

“What we should be doing in Tasmania, to be frank, we should all work together to make sure we keep our community healthy. Now is not the time to have to have different opinions – we are in the getting ready stage.”