Researchers from the Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have found that almost a third of recovered Coronavirus patients are readmitted to hospitals within five months. But the most shocking part of their finding is that up to one in eight patients dies because of COVID-19 related complications.
The team of researchers in the UK identified that that out of 47,780 people discharged from hospital in the first wave of Coronavirus, 29.4 percent returned to the hospital within 140 days and 12.3 percent died.
Long-Term Effects and Death
As reported by Telegraph, the study author Kamlesh Khunti, professor of primary care diabetes and vascular medicine at Leicester University, said that this was the largest study involving COVID-19 affected people discharged from the hospital.
Experts said that the long-term effects of COVID-19 could lead many survivors to develop heart problems, diabetes and chronic liver disease, as well as kidney problems. "People seem to be going home, getting long-term effects, coming back in and dying. We see nearly 30 percent have been readmitted, and that's a lot of people. The numbers are so large," said Prof Khunti.
He was surprised to find that patients were returning to hospitals with different health issues and many people had developed further complications. "We don't know if it's because Covid destroyed the beta cells which make insulin and you get Type 1 diabetes, or whether it causes insulin resistance, and you develop Type 2, but we are seeing these surprising new diagnoses of diabetes," Prof Khunti.
The UK Government registers a death related to Coronavirus infection if the patient dies up to 28 days after a positive test. But the real death toll could be much higher as thousands of COVID-19 survivors return to the hospital with serious health issues several months after their first Coronavirus diagnosis.
Citing the study, Christina Pagel, director of the clinical operational research unit at University College London said in a tweet: "This is such important work. Covid is about so much more than death."
This new revelation came at a time when Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, said that someone is being admitted to hospital with Coronavirus infection "every 30 seconds". But Public Health England revealed that weekly COVID-19 cases have fallen in every age group apart from the 80s.
