03-11-2020, 04:22 PM
(03-11-2020, 02:38 PM)michaelsean Wrote: My neighbor is forty years old and morbidly obese. 600+. He has cellulitis, and over the last few years he's had to go to the hospital every few months (he's learned to recognize the symptoms) when the symptoms kicked up. A couple days ago he scheduled to be picked up today to be taken, but was seriously considering not going because of coronavirus. Now I understand he runs a greater risk than most of us, but he currently HAS a serious life-threatening condition.
This comes back to patient education and giving them the information they need to manage their concerns. Cellulitis is usually caused by staph or strep. It’s usually the type of staph infection I referred to above which can be treated with oral antibiotics on an outpatient basis. It’s usually not life threatening, but it can be. In your neighbor’s case, I’m 99.9% sure he probably has type 2 diabetes and it is probably not well controlled due to the degree of obesity and he may even require insulin all of which makes treating cellulitis more difficult and increases the risk for life threatening complications. You’re right the infection he has is a greater risk to his health than a potential exposure to coronavirus at the hospital. Plus he is more likely to be exposed to the flu than the coronavirus and the obesity alone is an independent risk factor that places him in a high risk group for flu complications like pneumonia. So exposure to coronavirus should be way down the list of his medical concerns. But, they need to be given that information and they need to understand it. Unfortunately, studies indicate patients correctly remember only about 35% of the information they’re given.