A lot of people might not know it, but speech and language pathologists are also working in medical settings treating patients with swallowing or voice disorders, and that makes them essential during the rehabilitation phase of COVID-19 patients.
Many seriously ill COVID-19 patients are placed on ventilators due to acute respiratory difficulties. Speech-language pathologists provide rehabilitation services for damage that can be caused by mechanical ventilation, which includes injury of the vocal cords from breathing tubes and weakening of the swallowing musculature system.
The patients who end up in the ICU either have a tracheostomy or a tube that is pushed down through their vocal cords to have an airway in order for them to be able to breathe. Then they are placed on a ventilator. They are connected to a machine that is helping them breathe, potentially for weeks. During the time that they are ventilated, it is not possible to be fed through the mouth, and that causes the muscles used during swallowing to lose strength and along with that the ability to eat and swallow properly and safely.
Other than swallowing, intubation may also affect the patient’s ability to talk in case of a vocal fold or larynx injury. In those cases, there are some specific voice therapy techniques and exercises that will help patients get their voice back as soon as possible.
One of the great challenges when treating COVID19 patients is the unpredictability of the outcome. The recovery process for someone with a stroke, for example, is well known and more or less predictable but the recovery process for someone with COVID-19 is not that easy to foresee.
Let’s not also forget that the majority of Coronavirus patients are of great age, which makes it more possible to have cognitive struggles, hence making it harder for them to follow directions from the SLP.
To sum up, the COVID19 pandemic has been very difficult for the whole planet, but while we are sitting in the comfort of our house, let’s not forget all those front-line heroes who are fighting every day for over a year now, for our safety. Keep going guys. We see you and we salute you.
Antiochou Plexida Konstantina, SLP MSc
Sources:
- https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/the-speech-pathologists-helping-covid-19-patients-learn-how-to-swallow-and-speak-again-1.5319446
- https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/coronavirus-speech-language-pathologists-playing-key-frontline-role
- https://swallowingdisorderfoundation.com/the-role-of-the-slp-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/