JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Doctors see how the coronavirus destroys patients' lungs, but what many didn’t expect is that it also severely damages kidneys.
Though the lungs are ground zero for the coronavirus, Dr. Craig Shapiro, a nephrologist at Baptist Health, has seen first-hand that severe patients are also ending up with kidney disease.
The hospital has few COVID-19 patients, but of those in the ICU, “there’s been a high percentage of them requiring either or experiencing acute kidney failure, of which a significant portion of them require dialysis,” Dr. Shapiro told First Coast News.
Experts, like Dr. Shapiro, aren’t exactly sure how COVID-19 leads to kidney damage. However, there are two theories. One is the virus causes, “low blood flow to the kidneys,” and another is that the virus causes a, "direct toxic infect to the kidney cells themselves,” Dr. Shapiro explained.
That means the virus could be directly attacking the kidneys.
The kidneys play an important role in our bodies.
“The kidney’s main job is to clean the blood of all the poisons and toxins that your body generates on a daily basis," he said. ”When your kidneys begin to fail, your body isn’t able to clean the blood.”
Kidney disease linked to COVID-19 could effect what types of medications a patient can take as well as their kidney's ability to flush toxins out of their system.
Dr. Shapiro tells First Coast News if there’s a surge in coronavirus patients, Baptist is prepared.
They anticipate an increase in COVID-19 patients means an increase in those patients facing kidney damage, therefore they’re looking to get more dialysis machines and hire extra personnel to operate them.