An autopsy of COVID-19 victims testifies to this

Marcus Grill, Georg Mascolo and Hannes Munzinger

“The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) did not initially recommend autopsy the bodies of COVID-19 dead to protect doctors from infection. However, scientists from Hamburg and Basel took this and made their first conclusions, ”says the German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung.

20 bodies of patients who died of COVID-19 were opened at the University Hospital in Basel. “All those examined had hypertension,” said Professor Alexander Tsankov, head of the pathology department. “Most patients also suffered from severe obesity, meaning they were significantly overweight.” According to the doctor, men predominated among the dead. More than 2/3 of the dead had previous coronary artery damage and a third of patients had diabetes. “

“Along with identifying past illnesses, doctors from Tsank’s team also examined the deceased’s lung tissue.” Fewer patients had pneumonia, “he says. “Under the microscope, we saw a serious disruption of microcirculation in the lungs.” This, he said, means that oxygen exchange no longer works, explaining the difficulty in mechanically venting the lungs of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units: you want oxygen, it just won’t be accepted anymore, “the publication states.

Now the Robert Koch Institute has withdrawn its recommendation not to open the bodies of the deceased on COVID-19, stressing its importance and indicating the need for safety measures.

Forensic scientist Klaus Püshel of the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf performed an autopsy on 65 patients who died of COVID-19 from April 22 to 11. “The broadcasters of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the GDR and the WDR have a report on these cases, which was sent to the Hamburg health office last week. The professor confirmed the authenticity of the report, but did not want to answer questions. He only said this at the moment. More than 100 patients’ bodies were opened in Hamburg and all of them had previous illnesses, “says the article.

“The report is in line with some of the conclusions reached in Basel. For example, most of the dead had heart disease. According to the report, 55 of the 61 patients examined in Hamburg previously had cardiovascular disease. hypertension, heart attack, atherosclerosis and other heart problems 46 people had lung disease 28 had damage to other organs such as kidneys, liver or transplanted organs, 16 people had dementia, others had cancer, severe overweight or diabetes.

“There are few systematic studies in the world about autopsies of COVID-19 bodies. At the end of March, doctors at the University Hospital in Beijing presented data obtained from the autopsy of 29 bodies. They stressed that the virus affected not only the lungs but also the immune system and other organs. ”In the scientific journal Lancet, pathologists at the University of Zurich said the virus caused severe inflammation of blood vessels in various organs and examined two dead people and one survivor, why patients also died. not requiring mechanical ventilation.

“In Italy, the Ministry of Health has published a report listing the diseases of 1,738 patients who have died. However, the report is not based on autopsy results, but only on data from the patient’s medical records. Hypertension, diabetes and ischemic disease were also the most common. “

“An attempt to answer the controversial question of whether patients are dying from the virus or from concomitant diseases is made only in the report of the Hamburg examining doctor Klaus Puschel. In 61 of 65 deaths, COVID-19 was identified as the cause of death. The other four did not have a viral disease. “Was the cause of death. Cankov of Basel calls this difference “academic”. If I have cancer and I have six months to live and the car hits me, it does not reduce the driver’s guilt. He says: “Of course, the life expectancy of deceased patients with many previous illnesses was shorter than that of healthy ones. But without COVID-19, all these patients would probably live longer, maybe an hour, maybe one day, a week or a whole year, ”reports the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

10/05/2020