Covid-19: healthcare companion.

Byline: Naaznin Lokhandwala - Andover, Massachusetts, USA

COVID-19 has humbled medicine and is continuing to teach us important lessons. Medical interventions alone cannot magically save lives. Ventilator support, hydroxychloroquine, using blood thinners, seemingly beneficial, have all been fraught with complications.

The varying clinical presentations of Covid-19 have continued to challenge many traditional approaches to primarily a respiratory viral illness. Infected healthcare workers unknowingly transmit the virus to other patients, their families and the communities in which they live. This has been an inevitable consequence, which has played out most vividly in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Lack of personal protective equipment and the shrinking workforce has been a constant battle. One of the most devastating consequences of Covid-19 is patients dying alone, in fear in the hospital.

For a Covid-19 patient, what we have learnt is that supportive care is imperative. Encouraging patients to breathe deeply in a prone position can improve oxygen saturation significantly. Using this technique with concentrated oxygen has delayed or prevented the need for artificial ventilation improving recovery rates.

Hospitalised patients are unfortunately being isolated, briefly visited by strained nursing staff and doctors, donned with goggles, glasses and gowns obscuring that human connection, leaving them fearful and alone, likely decreasing their chances of survival.

The answer to these problems may lie with a healthcare companion, a concept we have been working on in Glucose Trail, a non-profit organisation dedicated to diabetes care.

A healthcare companion is an able family member or community member close to the patient that serves as a link between the patient and the professional healthcare provider. The...