A Gqeberha couple, both doctors, have opened the doors to a Post-Covid Recovery Centre which deals with the lingering after-effects of the virus, both physical and mental.
Dr Joshua Gernetzky and Dr Tarnia Raad had first-hand experience with a loved one battling with simple day-to-day tasks like waking up, getting dressed, short-term memory issues, fatigue and a lack of energy to get through an average day’s work.
The experience cemented an idea that there was a need to help the community with post-Covid-19-related symptoms.
In February, the duo opened the doors to the centre in Walmer.
“My mom tested positive for Covid-19 and she went through hell with severe symptoms and needing an oxygen cylinder. Seeing a loved one suffer makes you feel helpless,” Raad said.
The centre is a multidisciplinary, patient-focused approach to counteract the long-lasting effects of the disease and to prevent further complications.
“The aftermath of this virus is detrimental to one’s physical and mental health.
“The purpose is to restore the same quality of health they remember before this dreaded disease,” she said.
Raad said post-Covid-19 patients presented a wide variety of symptoms in varying degrees.
For this reason a multidisciplinary team from five different medical fields had worked with each other for months conducting baseline tests and treatment protocols to create a programme that would best assist patients.
The team included a general practitioner, physiotherapist, biokineticist, dietitian and psychologists.
Raad said the centre also offered individual and group psychotherapy as depression, anxiety, insomnia, joint pain, brain fog and poor cognitive functioning was all part and parcel of the symptoms experienced post-infection.
“Living through a pandemic has been stressful for everyone; the adjustments we have all made, the uncertainty, and the multiple losses, adjustments at work, home and school.
“Often we adapt to a new routine only for it to change. This has an impact on us and can be incredibly stressful.
“We have been faced with so much uncertainty that it made engaging with our future difficult.
“We worry about our job security, education, family, our health and safety.
“On an individual level, our experiences are unique. Some people find their anxiety levels are high, some are depressed, some have lost jobs, some have serious health challenges, and many are bereaved.
“In group therapy we bear witness to the struggles and experiences and offer support to start the process of healing. Mental health is key to healing,” Raad said.
Raad said patients were welcome to visit the centre after their isolation period.
The centre also boasts a two-man fully encapsulated hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
It consists of the chamber in which a patient is fully enclosed, and an oxygenator machine delivering 95% concentrated oxygen through an oxygen mask.
Raad said a normal atmosphere oxygen level was about 21%.
Chamber sessions allowed an increase in oxygen delivery to injured or hypoxic tissues at levels deeper than normal blood supply can penetrate.
“This uses the properties of liquids and gases under pressure, which causes oxygen to become dissolved into fluids such as plasma, cerebrospinal and synovial fluid, creating a systematic saturation of the brain, nervous system, muscles, joints and organs, penetrating difficult-to-reach regions in an effort to promote healing.”
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Oxygen gave the body the ability to rebuild itself by detoxifying the blood and strengthening the immune system.
With the correct tools, the body could overcome anything, Raad said.
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