Healthy man goes camping—lands in ICU for 40 days with respiratory failure
The man was in Argentina when he fell ill, but such cases occur in the US, too.
An otherwise-healthy 52-year-old office worker showed up to a hospital emergency department in Buenos Aires with an unshakable fever he developed the week before. Besides the high temperature, he seemed fine. So, after testing negative for COVID-19, doctors sent him home with supportive care. But the fever didn't go away.
In the week that followed, things got worse. He developed nausea, stomach pain, and diarrhea. He also started having trouble breathing. He then went back to the hospital.
This time, doctors found he needed supplemental oxygen. And an X-ray of his chest was worrisome—there were diffuse ground-glass opacities in his lungs. Doctors wondered if he had an unusual case of pneumonia. The man kept getting worse; in fact, he seemed to deteriorate before their eyes. Initially, he received supplemental oxygen through a simple face mask; subsequently, doctors switched to a mask that delivers continuous oxygen. However, his blood oxygen saturation continued to fall.
