$A woman in Ningbo suffered a rib fracture after a positive new crown, and doctors considered it to be caused by forceful coughing$

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A woman in Ningbo suffered a rib fracture after a positive new crown, and doctors considered it to be caused by forceful coughing

Covid-19 News

January 4, 2023January 4, 2023

Read Time:1 Minute, 44 Second

After a woman in Ningbo contracted the new coronavirus, she was diagnosed with a fractured rib on her left side after three days of severe back pain because she always felt phlegm and coughed hard on her own initiative many times.

“Consider that the cough broke the ribs. Because of coughing too hard, the inner and outer intercostal muscles pulled and fractured the ribs.” On January 4, Hu Chenjiao, an emergency department doctor at Ningbo Beilun District People’s Hospital (Beilun Branch of Zhejiang University), who attended to the patient, told reporters.

CT scan fracture site

The patient, Ms. Pu (a pseudonym), about 30 years old, was sent to the hospital’s emergency department by her family on the night of December 31 last year. She reported that she had tested positive for new crown antigen for 4 days, had a low fever before, and started feeling phlegm three days before the visit. Worried that the phlegm would cause pneumonia if she did not cough up the phlegm, she actively coughed hard, and on the second day of coughing hard the left side of her back began to have vague pain, which increased on the third day of coughing. After searching for symptoms online, she suspected she had a heart attack and rushed to the hospital emergency room.

After examining Ms. Pu, Hu Chenjiao initially ruled out a heart attack. Seeing her frequent coughing and severe pain when coughing, Hu Chenjiao judged that it might be a broken rib, and the CT scan results confirmed that Ms. Pu’s left rib was fractured.

“Coughing up broken ribs is common in elderly people with osteoporosis and is very rare in young patients.” Hu Chenjiao said that a rib band has been worn for Ms. Pu to help repair the fracture site, and that holding the fracture site can reduce pain if one still coughs. She suggested that if a severe cough persists one should seek medical attention to rule out pneumonia, etc., and work with cough and phlegm-suppressing and anti-allergy medications to minimize the frequency of coughing.