Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels
Dr. Ryan Padgett was one of the first frontline physicians in the county to fall critically ill from the coronavirus. Padgett was treated with an experimental drug called Actemra, and experts at Swedish believe the drug aided in his recovery.
“It would be fair to say we have treated patients with this medicine who have gotten quite ill and gotten better,” said Dr. Krish Patel who is the director of the lymphoma program at Swedish Cancer Institute First Hill.
The drug is showing promise in patients whose immune system response is overactive, making them even more ill in a very short amount of time.
Swedish has treated 40 COVID patients over the last two weeks with Actemra.“I think it’s still early to tell what role this medicine may have, but we’ve developed quite a bit of experience with it to this point already at Swedish,” said Patel.
