COVID-19 Pandemic Morbidity and Mortality Caused to Non-COVID Spine Inpatients at a Level One Trauma Centre: Case Report

Author Info

Danielle Shafiepour Humaid Al Farii Michael Weber Salim Al Rawahi

Corresponding Author

Humaid Al Farii
Department of Orthopaedic Oncology, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

A B S T R A C T

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) is evolving, overwhelming the healthcare system and negatively impacting inpatients, requiring nonelective surgical intervention. Case Presentation: We present two cases admitted under the Orthopaedic Spine Unit, a patient with an acute T12/L1 disc herniation and new-onset progressive bilateral lower extremity weakness, whose surgery was complicated by a cardiac arrest, secondary to a pulmonary embolism due to delayed access to the operating theatre (OR) and a patient with an L3 burst fracture, who left the hospital after waiting for four days for surgical management, being afraid of becoming infected with COVID-19. Conclusion: Challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic are real, but solutions must be explored. Acting on the proposed strategies listed in the report may be a good start towards improving the outcome and helping to avoid unintentional complications.

Article Info

Article Type

Case Report

Publication history

Received: Wed 29, Apr 2020
Accepted: Thu 14, May 2020
Published: Fri 22, May 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Humaid Al Farii. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.AJSCR.2020.02.06