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Central Florida Doctors Warn: Younger Patients Are Not Immune to Serious Coronavirus Complications

Photo: Olga Kononenko
Photo: Olga Kononenko

Doctors at AdventHealth are warning young people in the Central Florida area that they are not immune to serious complications of coronavirus because of their age. 

The majority of new coronavirus patients at AdventHealth in the Orlando area are in their 40s and 50s about a decade older than the state and county median patient age.

Dr. Eduardo Oliveira says that might explain why hospitalizations in the system are at an all-time high. He says younger patients in their 20s and 30s tend to have fewer co-existing conditions which improves health outcomes, but they can still develop complications.

“You can be a 21 year old and get very severe illness, end up on a ventilator, requiring several aggressive treatments to allow you and help you pull through this.”

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Oliveira said some of these patients may even continue to experience symptoms after recovery.

“Patients that have been initially even in the hospital that initially did very well. And they were stable. They had a period of decomposition, they stabilized. And then later on they developed more serious breathing problems.”

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Gov. Ron DeSantis has said the state will continue with its plans to reopen as he maintains most younger people are asymptomatic and older people account for much of the mortality rate. 

The state recorded its youngest death, a 17 year-old-boy in Pasco County this week. 

If you'd like to listen to this story, click on the clips above.

Danielle Prieur is WMFE's education reporter.