38-year-old patient, who had developed severe complications due to Covid, recovered after 50 days and was discharged from a private hospital here, authorities said on Sunday.
The patient, an executive in a multi-national company was diabetic, and had been admitted to the Moolchand Hospital on May 7, when the city was battling a fierce second wave of Covid.
He had severe bilateral pneumonia and had also developed Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), said Dr Surabhi Awasthi, Director of Critical Care at the hospital.
According to hospital authorities, the patient’s relatives had considered airlifting him for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and lung transplant but were somehow convinced to continue the treatment at the facility.
”He was in the ICU for 50 days and on ventilator support for nearly 35-40 days. After we could cure his lungs, he developed quadriparesis and could not move any limbs. ”We treated that condition with the help of a neurologist. Then the patient developed pneumothorax in which air gets filled inside the lungs but he managed to overcome everything,” Awasthi said.
Every three to four days, his kids would send him drawings to cheer him up, the doctor said.
”He has a two-year-old son and another five-six year-old kid. They were waiting for him to come back home. The patient held his moral fort really well. Around him, people were dying and there was a lot of gloom around him but he is a fighter,” said the doctor.
Currently, the patient has regained movement in his upper limbs but his lower limbs are still weak, the doctor said, adding that he can stand on his feet for just a few seconds.
”He has a long road to recovery and still has to get back on his feet,” said the doctor. Delhi had been reeling under a brutal second wave of coronavirus with shortage of beds and lack of oxygen adding to the woes of patients. However, cases have started declining with recoveries outnumbering the daily hospital admissions since May 14.
