Critically ill Nonagenarian defeats COVID-19

A 92-year-old female who was critically ill due to COVID-19 fought against the deadly disease and won the battle after 16 days of hospital stay. The nonagenarian had complaints of fever and body ache for 7 days. She tested positive on RT-PCR and got admitted to a city hospital with hypoxia and drowsiness. During her course of hospital admission, she was treated for COVID-19 along with Acute Renal Failure. The patient was critically affected with COVID-19 with severe pneumonia and was requiring 100% oxygen pressure on Venti- BiPAP. The patient was treated with IV antibiotics, antivirals, multivitamins, anti-platelets and other supportive care. Till now there have been reports of patients aged 106, 100 and 95 age who have defeated COVID-19, although most of them were Mild Category with only oxygen requirement.

The nonagenarian was successfully treated by Dr. Sameer Arbat who is leading the COVID Team of Pulmonologists Dr. Parimal Deshpande, Dr. Swapnil Bakamwar and supportive staff. Dr. Sameer Arbat, Interventional Pulmonologist at KRIMS Hospitals said that it was a team effort of all the doctors and nursing staff as the old lady was very fragile and required a thorough clinical and nursing care. “Advanced age and co-morbidities are indicators of bad prognosis in COVID-19. Our patient required 100% oxygen and we had to use the best combination of all evidence based medicines for COVID-19. We are very happy that the patient has recovered from a very critical stage and is now being sent home on 1-2L/m oxygen.”

The recovery of a senior citizen from a critical stage of disease sends a ray of hope to thousands of people who fear the worst outcome when they are tested positive for COVID-19. Until now there is no definite cure for COVID-19 and few anti-viral drugs have been approved by WHO for treatment of this novel disease. Timely treatment and effective clinical care can help in good outcome for critically ill patients.

Dr. Sameer Arbat, is the pioneer of Interventional Pulmonology in Central India and has been aggressively involved in creating awareness about COVID-19 since February 2020. He is also credited with 3 Innovations for COVID-19, the Bronchoscopy Safety Box, Doctor Safety Assistant and COVI-SAT van. All 3 innovations have garnered international recognition and acclaim over Europe and USA. “We are thankful to the team of KRIMS Hospitals and Dr Sameer Arbat for their efforts to save my mother’s life and letting her come back home safely”, commented the patient’s daughter.