Critically ill COVID-19 patients at risk of cardiac arrest — Dr Bayo Olufunwa
By Gabriel Olawale
Nigerian medical personnel caring for critically ill COVID-19 patients have been urged to pay more attention to their level of calcium ions
The Managing Director of Samolus Agrovet Services Consulting Limited, Dr. Bayo Olufunwa, who made the assertion in Lagos recently, said calcium is crucial in the proper functioning of the brain, muscles, and hear.
Olufunwa, who spoke during activities to mark his 70th birthday, said an imbalance of calcium ions in the body could lead to convulsions and sudden death.
According to him, the cardiac arrest seen in critically ill COVID-19 patients is not due to the direct effect of the virus but caused by respiratory complications caused by sustained hyperventilation following lack of oxygen.
“What medical personnel needs to do is to determine deficiency of free calcium ions in these groups of critically ill patients of which the total blood calcium should not be less than 8.8mg/dl (2.20mmol/litre).
“Free calcium ions should not be less than 4.7mg/dl (1.17 mmol/litre). Values less than this value for free calcium ions in the blood are ionic hypocalcemia, but total blood calcium will be normal being 8.8-10.2 mg/dl”
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Olufunwa in his 30-page paper presentation hinted that eclampsia in pregnant women is preventable with the right intervention.
“Eclampsia can be averted by the administration of a blood Acidifier which acidifies the alkalotic blood to the normal slightly alkaline pH of blood, with the attendant sequelae of releasing the calcium ions from protein binding and regaining its function in the blood.”
He appealed to the elderly beleaguered with a plethora of problems as a result of several emotional stress and anxiety to take 1000-2000 mg of vitamin C.
“As I said, vitamin C is a blood acidifier; it will prevent the blood from getting alkaline as a result of hyperventilation and the consequent respiratory alkalosis. It will prevent binding of ionic calcium by maintaining the normal pH of blood, and prevent it from going alkalotic, which favours the calcium-binding,” he noted.
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