Early physical therapy for a patient affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on awake veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: a case report

Since December 8, 2019, an acute respiratory illness has spread rapidly in China, causing 3,097 people to die as of March 7, and it has become a global crisis. The common symptoms are fever, fatigue, dry cough, myalgia, and dyspnea. This case report presents a 36-year-old male who was diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infected pneumonia on February 2, 2020. This patient received veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (V-V ECMO) last for 10 days as salvage treatment as his condition became critical in the acute setting. As soon as his status became stable, he began to receive an early rehabilitation program performed by our rehabilitation team. After 43 days of treatment under the efforts of our teamwork, the patient was able to walk 800 meters, and then was discharged the next day. To our knowledge, this is the first report of early physical therapy for a patient with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who was receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) whilst awake. This case indicates that early physical rehabilitation is safe and feasible and resulted in an expedited recovery using ECMO whilst awake. The goals for physiotherapy management include avoiding atelectasis, airway clearance, weaning and increasing the functional level. This report may contribute to the current literature on early physical therapy rehabilitation programs for awake ECMO patients.