No one referred Marjolein to the lung physiotherapist

“I’m having a bad day,” gasps Marjolein Pauly, 30. She walks on the treadmill of her physiotherapist in Eindhoven for a few minutes and gets off puffing. “I didn’t sleep well last night. I notice that now. ” Pauly went through corona more than two months ago, but the recovery is extremely difficult. She is still ill. “I’m mostly exhausted.” The until recently very healthy, cheerful woman gives her story in fits and starts, as if she is reading from a book in which every three words has a full stop.

Pauly is policy advisor innovation and space at the municipality of Sittard-Geleen. “Corona meant a great new angle for me on how to use technology in public space.” She spent three days thinking about it. “After that, I fell back a lot.” She cannot work for the time being; not only is she short of breath, she is also in a lot of pain, especially at night. “I sleep poorly. I feel a pressure, and stabbing. As if an elephant is on my chest. ”

Her lung physiotherapist Roel Smulders estimates that she must undergo treatments for at least six months. Smulders: “We don’t know anything about this disease. So we can’t say how long this will take and what the long-term consequences will be. ” Pauly: “I have to accept that. That is a mental challenge. The financial component is added to this. My insurance only reimburses nine physiotherapy treatments. ” Smulders: “There has been a diagnosis code since last week, and Marjolein is outside the chronic indication.” Because she was not hospitalized with corona. Pauly: “I think it is ridiculous that I miss this help. And then the insurance policy will also go up next year. So I am not covered by insurance and I have to pay more. How crooked is the world? “

Network for help unknown

Pauly’s drama lies in her illness, but also in the failure of health care. Nobody referred her. She was initially sent home with acetaminophen by the family doctor and later, when a pulmonologist determined that she had had Covid-19, she was advised to find a “balance” for what the pulmonologist described with the help of mindfulness or a respirator, for example. as chronic hyperventilation.

In other words, like many fellow sufferers, she was advised to find out for herself. While there is a network of more than 2,500 physiotherapists who specialize in patients with chronic heart and lung complaints, Chronisch ZorgNet. Since a few months, 900 of them have been additionally trained to treat patients with corona complaints.

The founder is Joep Teijink (55), who works as a vascular surgeon at the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven. He started the network twenty years ago to avoid surgical intervention in patients with display legs: pain and cramps due to a narrowing of the arteries in one leg. Teijink: “As a young vascular surgeon, I knew from the literature that you have to give people with display legs walking therapy before you have to dope them or operate on them. I then sent patients to the physiotherapist. ”

He set up a network of physiotherapists who receive continuous training. In the meantime, 90 percent of all patients with display legs go to such a physiotherapist first. Unfortunately, according to Teijink, only 4 percent of people with COPD still visit a lung physiotherapist. “The rest are behind the geraniums.” And so it threatens to go with patients who have gone through corona and experience the consequences for years. “Young people too. It concerns thousands of young people. ”

Therapists by zip code

Physical therapist Roel Smulders was shocked by the story of Marjolein Pauly. “How is it that someone with these complaints is sent home without professional aftercare, has to figure it out himself and only comes into contact with a physiotherapist from our network two months later? That affects me. Why is that network unknown? Apparently in the overorganized Netherlands it is not possible to get the right care in the right place. ”

Vascular surgeon Teijink picks up his phone, enters a postcode on Chronisch ZorgNet and shows the names of specialist physiotherapists in the area within seconds. “It’s that easy.” Pauly: “If I had been referred to one of these physiotherapists, not only would I have received help, but I wouldn’t have felt like an appointment. Because everywhere you read about the coronation cases in the hospital and intensive care and then as a home repairer you think: it could be even worse. ”

Some corona patients are not sick enough for the hospital, but are too sick for weeks to work. Doctors don’t yet know why

What can Smulders do for his patient? He lets her walk and cycle. Pauly: “I have to try to walk every day. Only. Because by nature I’m quite a chatterbox and now I have to keep my mouth shut. ” She also gets exercises to take home, and in practice Smulders tries, through exercises on devices, to strengthen the strength in her muscles.

And how can her nighttime pain be relieved? The pain is worst when Marjolein lies on her right side, light pressure is enough to take her breath away completely. Smulders asks how high her pillow is. She looks at him questioningly. “Play with that,” he says, “to straighten the head and put less pressure on the chest. And see what happens when you put your arm behind you. ” It is a tip from someone who says he is busy with learning on the job, like everything else at corona. Smulders: “Maybe you can sleep better this way. Then we have taken another step. ”