First Australian Case of Good Recovery of a COVID-19 Patient With Severe Neurological Symptoms Post Prolonged Hospitalization

Wijeratne, Tissa; Sales, Carmela A; Crewther, Sheila G; Nguyen, Vinh; Karimi, Leila

A case of a 75-year-old man with COVID-19, severe neurological symptoms (acute stroke-like symptoms and signs and full recovery after a prolonged hospital stay), and intracranial hypertension is discussed with an in-depth review of his clinical features, biochemistry, haematology, highlighting the relationship between changes in neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, C-reactive protein level, D-dimer level, and the clinical onset of acute ischemic stroke-like symptoms in the setting of COVID-19 and major neurological manifestations. This is the first such case reported in Australia to date. This case also illustrates the recovery of a patient with COVID-19 complicated with severe neurological symptoms (acute ischemic stroke-like symptoms) during the prolonged intensive care unit stay (at day 26) followed by slow neurorehabilitation and normal recovery from both respiratory and neurological involvement. The onset of acute stroke-like symptoms appears to be closely associated with changes of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and in C-reactive protein, and D-dimer levels.