North Texas Doctor Recovers After Having COVID-19 And Flu At Same Time
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - It was around the middle of March when Dr. Chelsea Park started feeling under the weather.
"I had a pretty high fever, chills, severe cough and sore throat," Dr. Park, who practices Internal Medicine at Baylor Scott & White Irving, explained. At first Dr. Park thought she just had the flu, but she was also tested for COVID-19.
The results surprised her.
She had both.
"I'm thinking that it's not very common, " said Dr. Park. "I turned out to be one of those few lucky ones."
Dr. Steven Davis, an Infectious Disease Specialist also at Baylor Scott & White Irving helped treat Dr. Park. He told CBS 11 News the team now knows around 10% of those early COIVD-19 cases had co-infections with other viruses.
It presents a problem going forward, particularly with testing.
"We would generally think to test someone for the flu and then stop at that point and not test any further for COVID," said Dr. Davis.
Thankfully Dr. Park healed up. She also donated plasma to help treat other COVID-19 patients.
It's something she encourages anyone who's healthy and who's been through the virus to consider.
"I think it's very important that all of us who were fortunate enough to recover from it without much complication to really consider giving this to those who are in need," she said.
