fbpx

Chinese Doctors Critically Ill With COVID-19 Wake Up With Darkened Skin

Chinese Doctors Critically Ill With COVID-19 Wake Up With Darkened Skin

doctors
Two Chinese doctors who were critically ill with coronavirus woke up from comas with darkened skin. Both worked with whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang, who was punished for sounding the alarm over the coronavirus. (Photo Credit: BEIJING SATELLITE TV)

Can having coronavirus turn your skin several shades darker? Chinese state media is claiming that this happened to two Chinese doctors who caught the disease. According to a handful of international media outlets, two Chinese doctors in Wuhan, where the virus is suspected to have started, awoke to find they had substantially darker skin. No, they weren’t in tanning beds, but hospital beds.

There has been no medical evidence to prove these claims. The Daily Mail reported that the two doctors were critically ill with coronavirus. They woke up to find that their skin had turned dark after the virus damaged their liver. While it is true that liver damage can darken your skin, the darkening is usually jaundice — a yellowing of the skin and eyes — according to John Hopkins Medicine. COVID-19 can possibly damage your liver.

The two Chinese doctors, Dr. Yi Fan, a cardiologist, and urologist Dr. Hu Weifeng, had been fighting for their lives after contracting the virus at work. They were both placed on a life-support machine called ECMO in January for 39 days at the Wuhan Central Hospital, according to the Mail Online. ECMO stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

The machine is similar to the heart-lung bypass machine used in open-heart surgery and pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body, New York Post reported.

When they recovered, their doctors told Chinese state media that their dark skin color was caused by hormonal imbalances after their livers were damaged by the virus. Or it could have been a reaction to an unnamed medication the two patients were given. The hospital presented Chinese state media with before-and-after photos of the two patients and footage, which was released by Beijing TV Station and CCTV.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 70: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin goes solo to discuss the COVID-19 crisis. He talks about the failed leadership of Trump, Andrew Cuomo, CDC Director Robert Redfield, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and New York Mayor de Blasio.

Speaking to CCTV about his darkened skin, a worried Dr. Yi admitted: “When I first gained consciousness, especially after I got to know about my condition, I felt scared.” He added, “I often had nightmares.”

Yi and Hu both worked with whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang, who was punished for sounding the alarm over the coronavirus and died of the illness on Feb. 7, according to the New York Post. Dr. Hu only regained his ability to speak on April 11.

Doctors expect both the healthcare providers’ skin color to eventually return back to normal after their liver function improves, Science Times reported.

READ MORE: A McDonald’s in China was refusing entry to Black people.