#36 My daughter’s Long Covid changed how I practice medicine with Dr Binita Kane

STORIES: What do you do when your medical training has no answers for your own child?

This is the question that Dr Binita Kane found herself facing in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a Consultant Respiratory Physician, Dr Kane was among the first clinicians to recognise that many patients were not recovering after acute Covid infection. Yet when her own daughter’s life was brought to a standstill by the debilitating effects of Long Covid, the challenge became deeply personal.

Forced to confront the limitations of conventional medical knowledge, Dr Kane had to unlearn parts of her training and re-educate herself in order to help her daughter. That journey has since shaped the care she provides to the thousands of patients she now treats at The Long Covid Clinic, and the millions more who benefit from her advocacy and education work around Long Covid and complex chronic illness.

In this episode, Dr Kane shares her daughter’s experience navigating Long Covid, the lessons it taught her as both a clinician and a parent, and how it transformed her approach to patient care.

In our conversation, we explore:

• Managing complex chronic illness within a family context
• Why an interdisciplinary approach is essential for effective Long Covid care
• Why a strategy of complete rest, pacing and energy management is instrumental to recovery, and why it’s so difficult to get right
• The case for individualised, patient-led treatment approaches

Dr Kane also explains how tools like Visible can help patients monitor heart rate, track stress and better understand their energy limits, and how this data can support more informed clinical decision-making.

About Dr Binita Kane

Dr Binita Kane is a Consultant Respiratory Physician, founder of The Long Covid Clinic, and a founding member of the International Society for Long Covid and Post-Acute Infection Syndromes (ISLC-PAIS). She is a leading advocate for evidence-based, patient-centred care for people living with Long Covid and related post-viral conditions: champion for Long COVID Kids, advisor for Long COVID Support and an Ambassador for #ThereForMe campaign. Dr Kane also hosts a YouTube channel entitled “The Long Covid Clinic: What you CAN do” to empower patients by sharing the extensive knowledge that she and colleagues have gained.

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