65-year-old woman beats COVID-19 after 22 days in hospital

SHILLONG, SEPT 5: 65-year-old woman on Saturday was discharged from the Nazareth hospital after winning the battle against COVID-19.

The elderly patient presented with fever with severe respiratory distress for 7 days with oxygen saturation of 65% with signs of severe pneumonia to Nazareth hospital on August 13 and was tested positive for COVID-19 on admission.

She is a known patient of diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

She was aggressively treated for COVID-19 pneumonia as there was evidence of cytokine storm and severe bilateral lung infiltrates in chest X-ray.

She was treated with a combination of medicines and required oxygen up to 70 litres per minute to maintain her oxygen level. She was not intubated at any point of her stay.

“Gradually from day 3 onwards she showed marginal improvement of her parameters and by Day 6 her respiratory parameters improved significantly and her oxygen requirements was reduced to less 20 litres and by second week of treatment she improved significantly and only had minimal symptoms on exertion,” hospital’s HOD department of Internal Medicine, Dr Debomallya Bhuyan said.

“She was Covid-19 (RT PCR) negative on the 22nd day of her hospital stay on September 3,” he said.

Urging the people not to panic or be paranoid about the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Bhuyan said, “The strong will power showcased by the 65 year old patient as she fought through the infection is really commendable. We hope that this success brings courage and faith for many people in and around Shillong.”

“Taking her case as an example, we wish to tell people to not give in to the fear and lose hope. The fatality rate of COVID-19 is very low and we urge people to be positive and safe during these challenging times,” he added.

By Our Reporter