Hello! I’m breaking my BHF virginity with this post.
I need some advice to help me understand the optimum treatment/lifestyle/medication for my father.
Anybody with experience of severe Covid/ARDS/Prolonged mechanical ventilation and subsequent tachycardia due to cardio-respiratory de conditioning/damage, please kindly get in touch.
Cheers
Hello. Sorry to hear about your father. I think it might be worth putting a call into the BHF nurses. They are now available at weekends.
Ok thanks
Hello and welcome to the forum! Having read through your other posts documenting your father's long battle with Coronavirus I think there is no easy answer. I have to agree with David that a call to the BHF nurses would be good starting point. The Help Line number is 0300 330 3311, and is open weekdays 9am - 7pm, bank holidays & weekends 10am - 4pm.
Meanwhile I think everyone on the forum wishes him a full and complete recovery...
Either the BHF nurses, or do you/he have access to a specialist nurse practitioner from the hospital where he was treated? If none was advised on discharge, phone & ask if you can have a contact person.
Albeit for different causes, the specialist cardio nurse at my hospital has been invaluable for 18m with Q’s etc.
The benefit over the already excellent BHF staff, is that a nurse at the hospital will have all your dad’s records & treatment info. They may also gain knowledge from post-care of other folks they’ve treated that they can share, perhaps faster than BHF will have this.
Secondly, I have no experience of covid (tho I maybe had it undiagnosed in March) and am not a medic, but in case my experience helps you with Q’s to ask doctors.....
Post open-heart surgery, I found total recovery was a good 6-9m. I was told it’s important to be upright as often as possible, & mooch or stroll regularly if at all poss, to help mechanically ventilated lungs recover. I could only walk super slow & short, and had to nap after, but it did help, incl with getting anaesthetic out of system slowly. I found my breath would often ‘snatch’ or quickly inhale once, without me choosing to, like a sharp intake of breath involuntarily - apparently normal for post-ventilated lungs & goes eventually.
More recently, I had pericarditis, inflammation and fluid around the heart & lungs, probably due to a virus. This has some similarities to covid19, as a ‘cytokine storm’ or huge immune response is thought to be involved. The immune response is what’s thought to be responsible for many of pericarditis physical symptoms, like shortness of breath, pain on breathing, chest tightness & pain. And believe similar is true with covid, the body’s immune & inflammation system impacts organs etc. Obviously covid has a much bigger & wider impact, so I’m not implying I had anything like your dad. But in case my small findings help you enquire further - I eventually found out that rest was essential (seems obvious now). This was quite specific - do nothing that took my heart rate over 100. For a while, this meant not even walking to the next room.
Some people i know have been given a spirometer, a tube to breathe with to exercise the lungs & breathing muscles. It sounds hard work.
If BHF / hospital nurses recommend, I also wonder about occupational health or specialist physiotherapist services, as medium-term options to help your dad regain his strength.
Finally, check Facebook for groups that may be more specifically able to guide you - there is more pericarditis patient activity there than anywhere else I’ve found, thanks to a tip from here to search there.
Wishing you both all the very best.
Cardiac rehabilitation
Side effects of statins. 
sudden high heart rate
Heart not pumping well
Dizziness after open heart surgery 
