Facilitating Respiratory comfort The most crucial

Though the integral role of medical specialists, anesthesiologists and ENT doctors in treating critically-ill COVID-19 patients is known, little has been said about the role played by physiotherapists in assisting these patients towards full recovery.
“We are posted mostly in the ICU ward and cater to severely-ill patients, and our service can prove to be quite crucial towards the recovery of these patients. Especially those who develop cardio-pulmonary complications,” says Dr Chhewang Dorje, a doctor from the Physiotherapy department at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER).
Dr Dorje, who is currently posted at the ICU unit dedicated for severely-ill COVID-19 patients at PGIMER’s Nehru Extension Block, reveals that at least three physiotherapists are posted on COVID-19 duty every week at the hospital.

Facilitating Respiratory comfort
The most crucial role physiotherapists play in aiding the recovery of a COVID-19 patient is in facilitating easier breathing through inspiratory muscle strengthening exercises and removing excessive mucus from the respiratory tract.
This intervention is not usually required for COVID-19 patients who have a consistent dry cough, but in patients who have a more productive cough. “The patients who have consistent dry cough, we avoid teaching them exercises because it might end up aggravating their cough instead and lead to producing more droplets and aerosol particles.