Meghalaya is worrying as many elderly COVID19 positive patients including middle-aged persons have died in the past few months.
But Nazareth Hospital saw light in spite of being surrounded by darkness when a 65-year-old patient could fight back and recovered from the disease.
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A statement issued by Sister Noreen, administrator of Nazareth Hospital, and Dr Debomallya Bhuyan, head of the department of internal medicine, said the 65-year-old lady was brought to Nazareth hospital on August 13.
During her admission, she was suffering from fever with severe respiratory distress and her oxygen saturation level was 65%.
She also had signs of severe pneumonia.
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She was Covid19 positive on admission, and she is a known patient of diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
She has aggressively treated for Covid19 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 reduced to less 20 litres and by the second week of treatment, she improved significantly and only had minimal symptoms of exertion.
She tested negative for Covid19 during RT-PCR test on September 3, the 22nd day of her hospital stay.
The Nazareth Hospital highlighted these facts in order to give them the confidence of medical therapy for Covid19 medical crisis.
‘’Yes you need to be cautious and stay safe, but do not panic or be paranoid about the Covid pandemic. If you are in the high-risk group like age above 60 years and any other co-morbid conditions, you must take extra care,” the Nazareth Hospital statement said.
“As Covid19 deaths are very much highlighted, it is our endeavour to inform the public that a severe case of Covid19 pneumonia can be cured,” the statement said.
The hospital also said strong willpower showed 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. We would like to thank the patient for having faith in us as we continue our fight against the pandemic. Taking her case as an example, we wish to tell people to not to give in to the fear and lose hope,” the hospital said.
“The fatality rate of COVID-19 is very low and we urge people to be positive and safe during these challenging times. We acknowledge the dedicated effort of the doctors and nursing staffs working in the Covid isolation ward,” it added.