An 86-year-old woman who caught Covid was left with blackened gangrene-stricken fingers after the virus caused severe clotting.
The woman, who is from Italy, caught coronavirus in April 2020, which cut off the blood supply to her upper extremities.
As a result, she was left with black fingers that swelled from her knuckles up to the tip of her fingers.
Sadly, doctors were unable to stimulate blood flow and the woman had to have three of her digits amputated.
A new report in the European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery called the disease a “severe manifestation” of coronavirus.
It is believed the side effect may be related to a common immune reaction to Covid called “cytokine storm”.
Cytokine storm prompts the body to attack both sick and healthy tissues in a response to the havoc the virus wrecks on the vascular system.
The woman’s reaction is not the first time a Covid patient has needed their fingers amputated.
A 54-year-old man from California had two fingers amputated as a result of extensive tissue and muscle damage after contracting Covid on a ski trip.
The side effect has also been seen in England when a father-of-two, from Cardiff, Wales, contracted coronavirus and lost his left thumb and a forefinger.
Professor Roopen Arya, from King’s College London, said in May 2020 that as many as 30% coronavirus hospital patients had blood clots.
He said he believes thrombosis is a “major problem” with the disease, and doctors have said it is important to remember Covid is a multi-system disease.
Professor Graham Cooke, involved with the National Institute for Health Research, a research arm of the NHS, said: “It’s important to note Covid is a multi-system disease.
“I think one of the features that seems to separate it from other severe viral disease is this more hypercoagulable state that seems to be associated with later disease.”
