On March 21, 2020, the first woman from Freiburg died of an infection with Sars-CoV-2. Since then, senior physician Johannes Kalbhenn has repeatedly faced the death of Covid 19 patients in the intensive care unit of the university clinic.
BZ: What is the current situation in the intensive care units of the Freiburg University Clinic?
Kalbhenn: We still have Covid-19 patients in the intensive care units. These are mainly people who have been treated here for weeks or months. But we also have many other intensive care patients because during the second wave many serious operations were postponed and will be rescheduled. That is why we are now fully occupied. As far as Corona is concerned, we can at least take a breather in the intensive care units.
“Corona affects all organs and, for example, muscles.”
BZ: According to the health department, a little more than 300 people in Freiburg and the neighboring district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald have died of or with a coronavirus infection within one year since March 2020. Many were in the clinic before that. Can you tell us what the exact cause of death was in the majority of your patients?
Calf hen: Corona is a disease that not only affects the lungs. Corona affects all organs and, for example, muscles. The problem is that the virus penetrates into the gutter membranes and causes severe inflammation there. The lungs contain many vessels, which is why they are often damaged in these patients too. Severe pneumonia remains a typical symptom. So there are patients with an acute corona infection who die of a lack of oxygen. We try to avert this, also through the use of various types of oxygen administration through to ventilation or the “artificial lungs”, a so-called ECMO.
Johannes Kalbhenn (41) works at the Freiburg University Hospital. He is the managing senior physician at the Clinic for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine. He heads an intensive care unit that treats Covid 19 patients.
BZ: What other causes of death did you find out?
Calf hen: Many patients do not die in a highly acute manner, but after days and weeks of treatment from a coronavirus …
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