In fading steel towns, chronically ill patients hope video visits stay after the pandemic goes
Ordinarily Trueman Mills makes the trek to his cardiologist by car. He lives in rolling hills at the edge of Allegheny National Forest, about 90 miles from his doctor in Pittsburgh. It is a setting as beautiful as it is inconvenient for patients with congestive heart failure, a condition that in late March caused Mills’ legs to swell into balloon-like shapes he could barely recognize.
Luckily for him, the Covid-19 pandemic came with a big silver lining: His doctor, Ravi Ramani, offered to examine him via video conference. During the visit, the 86-year-old former consultant and car salesman tilted his screen to show the swelling in his legs, prompting Ramani to adjust his medications to help shed the excess fluid.
