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So I wanted to ask, given that most governments imposed quarantine in order to reduce risk of infection and/or not to overwhelm hospitals capacity, I wanted to know if it really makes a difference in certain cases to hospitalize a very ill COVID patient or if that just prolonges his/her death due to the fact that recovery seems to be "spontaneus"?
Thanks!
There are many diseases that can't be cured, but can be kept from being lethal by supportive interventions. At its most basic level this may simply be providing a patient with shelter, food, and water while they fight off the illness. If you've never suffered from a serious illness you may not appreciate that it can weaken you so much that you may not be able to feed your self or even rise from your sick bed. It would be a shame to die of dehydration just about the time your immune system was killing off the disease.
We don't have a cure for Covid-19, so if you are infected, the only way you are going to recover is if your immune system is able to mount an effective defense to the virus. Fortunately this is a natural and inevitable process for most of us. The problem is that it takes time, so there is a race between the damage being done by the virus and the immune system's response. There are many medical interventions that can help you survive the immediate damage, and buy you more time to mount an immune response.
The most obvious damage caused by Covid-19 is to the lungs. If your lungs aren't working effectively you don't have long to live without assistance of some sort. Hospitals can offer oxygen, put you on a ventilator, or even artificially oxygenate your blood outside your body.
Covid-19 is thought to cause blood clots. Blood clots can keep blood from getting to your lungs or other vital organs, but there are drugs that lower the risk of blood clots forming.
There are also indications Covid-19 can cause kidney damage. Being put on dialysis may be able to cover for your kidney damage long enough for your body to heal.
Your immune system may over-react to the virus and begin attacking your own organs. There are drugs that can dampen the over-reaction and limit the damage to your organs.
None of these treatments is guaranteed to save the day, but they have helped many people. Managing these treatments is complex, and may require minute by minute monitoring by skilled ICU nurses and doctors.
