La Trobe

First Australian case of good recovery of a COVID-19 patient with severe neurological symptoms post prolonged hospitalization

journal contribution
posted on 2025-11-28, 04:35 authored by Kulasekara WijeratneKulasekara Wijeratne, Carmela A Sales, Sheila CrewtherSheila Crewther, Vinh NguyenVinh Nguyen, Leila KarimiLeila Karimi
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.<p></p>

History

Publication Date

2020-01-01

Journal

Cureus

Volume

12

Issue

9

Article Number

e10366

Pagination

11p.

Publisher

Cureus

ISSN

2168-8184

Rights Statement

© The Authors 2025. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0