Suburban doctor on front lines shares how he himself survived COVID-19

Dr. Zaher Sahloul knows how COVID-19 ravages patients. He has seen more than 300 cases in the weeks since the pandemic's scourge began.

But it wasn't until Sahloul, a Syrian American lung specialist from Burr Ridge, got infected in April that he fully appreciated the unrelenting nature of the disease.

“This is a very unpredictable virus,” said Sahloul, 55, who works in a COVID-19 unit at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. “Eighty percent of patients who get infected with COVID-19 don't need to be in the hospital.”

The remaining 20% come in with more serious symptoms — shortness of breath, low oxygen levels, dizziness and chest pain.

“Some people come with a blood clot in their lung or brain. ... Sometimes you find it incidentally in patients who come for unrelated symptoms,” he said.

Some COVID-19 patients recover in days, experiencing mild symptoms. For others, recovery could take weeks.

In the worst-case scenarios, especially involving older adults and people with compromised immune systems or severe underlying chronic health conditions, there's a higher risk of developing serious complications, including pneumonia, respiratory failure, stroke and death.

Sahloul became ill in early April. His recovery took three weeks, which he spent in isolation at home while distanced from his wife and two college-age children.

His symptoms started with a cough that later developed into high fever, chills, muscle aches, headache, fatigue and nasal congestion. About six days in, Sahloul lost his sense of smell and taste.

“I did not recover the senses,” he said in an interview last week.

Still, his symptoms were mild. He tried returning to work after two weeks, but the fever returned — this time with severe back and neck pain.

“No one knows how long the virus stays in your system,” Sahloul said. “It doesn't mean that you are infectious. The peak infectiousness of this virus is a few days before and a few days after the beginning of the symptoms.”

Studies show the virus can stay in patients' nasal areas for four to eight weeks.

With no proven treatment available, Sahloul managed his symptoms with Tylenol, Mucinex, fluids and rest. At the time, the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was touted as a possible cure for novel coronavirus, though unsupported by studies or scientific evidence.

“I did not want to take the chance because of the side effects, and I wasn't convinced,” Sahloul said. “I let the disease take its course. I don't have any comorbidities, high blood pressure, diabetes. That probably protected me.”

Sahloul isn't sure if he contracted the virus from a patient — several colleagues also have been infected — or through community contact.

When dealing with COVID-19 patients, he wears an N95 mask, face shield, gown and gloves. Doctors reuse masks and shields due to a shortage of personal protective equipment, increasing their chances of getting infected.

He said everyone gets one mask per day, which might be reused up to 15 times, and shares face shields after disinfecting them.

“In the past, every encounter with any patient, you dispose of your N95,” Sahloul said. “There's many things that can go wrong in this process of reusing PPEs.”

He previously also didn't wear full protective gear when examining patients with regular chronic respiratory issues, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or fluid in the lungs.

“Now, we are treating every patient as suspect, more or less,” Sahloul said.