Houston doctor searching for link between COVID-19 patients who developed abnormally large tongues
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Anthony Jones and his wife, Gail Jones, prepare for a surgery to reduce the size of his tongue, which swelled severely due to a rare COVID-19 side effect. Before the surgery, Gail had to wrap her husband's tongue daily.UTHealth / Courtesy
There is a COVID-19 side effect that I don't think anyone could have expected.
"It is psychologically depressing because they are looked at as an oddity," said Dr. James Melville of UTHealth School of Dentistry, per Newsweek's Aristos Georgiou. "They have to be on a feeding tube, a permanent tracheostomy for an airway, and there is an infection risk. The tongue completely dries out, so you have to wrap it to keep it moist so it doesn't crack and bleed."