BEIJING: Dr Yi Fan and Dr Hu Weifeng, two Chinese doctors who fell critically ill with coronavirus, found their skin had turned dark after surviving the deadly illness. 


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Both doctors were infected with COVID-19 while treating patients at the Wuhan Central Hospital in January. Doctors treating them said they both needed to be put on life support but as a result of treatment to bring them back from the brink of death their skin turned dark. 


The change in skin colour is being attributed to a hormonal imbalance that took place as the doctors’ livers were damaged by the virus, Chinese state media report said. 


Dr Yi and Dr Hu both worked with whistle-blower Li Wenliang, who was punished for sounding the alarm of the virus and then died of the disease on February 7. 


Dr Yi remains in hospital but is no longer in intensive care after 39 days on life support.


The two medics were both diagnosed on January 18 and first taken to the Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital and then transferred twice, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Dr Yi, a cardiologist, defeated COVID-19 after doctors hooked him to a life-support machine called ECMO for 39 days.


ECMO is a drastic life-support procedure that replaces the function of the heart and lungs by pumping oxygen into the blood outside the body. 


Urologist Dr Hu’s condition was even worse and he has been bed-bound for 99 days, his own doctor said. Dr Li Shusheng, who has been treating both health workers, said the two doctors’ skin turned dark due to a type of medicine they were given during the early stages of their treatment.