Doctors with Covid-19 horrified to find their skin has turned black after disease damaged their livers
Two Chinese doctors who had fallen critically ill with COVID-19 after treating patients saw their skin turn dark because of the intense treatment they had to undergo.
Dr Yi Fan and Dr Hu Weifeng, both 42, had caught the novel coronavirus while treating patients at the Wuhan Central Hospital in January and were initially taken to the Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital, according to the Daily Mail.
They were later transferred to Tongji Hospital's Zhongfa Xincheng branch, where they only recently recovered, though not without scarring.
Both found they had abnormally dark skin, something doctors said had been caused by hormonal imbalances after their livers had been damaged by the virus.
Dr Li Shusheng, who treated Weifeng, added that he suspected the doctors' skin had turned dark due to a type of medicine they had received at the start of their treatment. He shared that one of the drug's side-effects was darkening of skin color, but did not go as far as revealing its name.
Dr Fan managed to fight off COVID-19 after doctors took the drastic step of hooking him up to an ECMO machine. ECMO, which stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, involves pumping and oxygenation of the patient's blood outside the body so their hearts and lungs get a chance to rest.
Speaking to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV this past week, he said that he could move in bed normally but that he was struggling to walk independently. He added that his experience of fighting the virus had traumatized him.
"When I first gained consciousness, especially after I got to know about my condition, I felt scared. I had nightmares often," he revealed.
Footage shot at the hospital shows Dr Zhan Qingyuan from China-Japan Friendship Hospital talking to Fan and Weifeng in their wards on April 6 at Tongji Hospital. Qingyuan had been treating both of them before he and his team left Wuhan to return to Beijing.
Fan can be heard telling him that he was recovering well and that his wounds had healed for the most part. He is then asked to "save Fan's comrade" Weifeng, who was still unable to speak at the time due to his poor health.
Weifeng's condition was reportedly more serious, and the 42-year-old haven't still made complete recovery despite spending 99 days on the hospital bed.
He underwent ECMO therapy from February 7 to March 22 and only regained his ability to speak on April 11. He is still being looked after in an intensive care ward and Shusheng revealed that he was worried about his mental health.
"He could not stop talking to the doctors who come to check on him," he said.
Fan and Weifeng were colleagues with Li Wenliang, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist who also worked at the Wuhan Central Hospital and had tried to warn of an outbreak as early as in December.
He had subsequently been accused by Chinese officials of "spreading rumors" that had "severely disturbed the social order" and forced him to sign a statement admitting to "illegal behavior." He caught the virus and died in February.