Doctors warn that coronavirus can cause priapism, a condition wherein the penis stay erect for a longer time than the usual.
The 62-year-old man from France suffered this painful condition while receiving care in Centre Hospitalier de Versailles in Le Chesnay near Paris after he went there complaining of symptoms such as fever, dry cough, diarrhea, and feeling yucky, Forbes report.
He had been otherwise in good health, so the doctor prescribed him some antibiotics. But two days later, he started having severe shortness of breath and eventually went into respiratory failure and had to be admitted to the hospital and be placed on a ventilator.
Blood Clotting Found in the Veins of the Man's Penis
In a report published in the intensive care unit doctor, Myriam Lamamri explained how blood clotting caused by COVID-19 had been extensively reported during the pandemic.
Blood clotting or thrombosis has been reported as a dangerous complication of COVID-19. When clots block the arteries or veins, it can trigger fatal heart attacks and strokes. Additionally, it can also cause priapism, which was seen in many coronavirus patients.
According to the case report published in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, intensive care unit doctor Myriam Lamamri explained that "the physical examination revealed previously unidentified priapism."
That means no one had noticed an erection before the physical exam conducted on the patient. Understandably, when a patient complains of difficulty breathing, the last thing in mind is to check for an erection unless the patient is acting strange, which causes him to experience difficulty in breathing.
The doctors sedated the man, so he was unable to answer questions about how much pain he is suffering, but it is known that the condition is an excruciating experience.
They tried applying an ice pack on the penile area, but after four hours, the doctors decided to suck out the blood from his penis using a needle. They found dark blood clots, which were the result of blood clotting because of coronavirus.
"The clinical and laboratory presentation in our patient strongly suggests priapism related to SARS-CoV-2 infection," the doctors wrote in their report.
The patient has already left ICU after two weeks of being admitted on a ventilator, suggesting that he has now recovered from COVID-19. He has not suffered priapism since leaving the hospital, the report said.
Read also: Thrombotic Events Mysteriously Occur on Many COVID-19 Patients
COVID Infection Can Cause Priapism
Typically, blood clot happens to stop a wound from bleeding when someone injures themselves. It is a process that can occur at the wrong time, causing thrombosis, which blocks the heart, brain, and lungs. Hospital patients with coronavirus are suffering blood clots, but doctors are still baffled why.
Others say that the virus directly causes the blood to change, while another theory suggests that it is the effects of the virus on the immune system that could ramp up clotting.
Dr. Lamamri said that this is the first time they encountered a penile thrombosis in a patient with COVId-19.
The 62-year-old man suffered low-flow priapism as opposed to high-flow priapism caused by an injury. Moreover, priapism can often occur without a known cause in healthy men and can also affect men with sickle-cell disease, leukemia, or malaria.
This man's case showed yet another possible complication that can further add to COVID-19 being a stiff uphill battle.
