Woman, 79, becomes oldest person in Chandigarh to defeat virus

Chandigarh, May 15 (IANS) A 79-year-old woman in Chandigarh on Friday became the oldest person in the city to beat coronavirus.

She was declared cured and discharged from the Post-Graduation Institute of Medical Education and Research’s (PGIMER) Covid Hospital here.

In a complete contrast, the other person discharged from the hospital was a young nine-year-old girl from Sector 30.

It was quite an emotional scene at the send-off as both walked towards the exit amid rousing claps.

About the latest recoveries, G.D. Puri, Head of the Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, said: “Today we discharged a 79-year-old lady from Chandigarh who was admitted to PGI Nehru Hospital Extension on April 20.

“She was not a known case of heart disease. Our cardic anaesthetist K.P Gaurav did her examination and found doubt of cardiac ailment. He immediately did echocardiography and found severe aortic stenosis in this woman. Subsequently, she was managed in Covid ICU with postural therapy, oxygen as well as other cardiac medications.”

“This is all due to team work of anaesthetist, intensivist, pulmonologist, internist, psychologist, cardiologist and team of hospital administration, nurses and technicians that such high quality care was provided to such sick patient resulting into good outcome,” he said in a statement.

As the elderly lady, a resident of Sector 38, moved towards the ambulance, she thanked the PGIMER team for treating her like their own as she said with moist eyes: “Seeing everyone greeting, cheering and taking pictures is very very touching.”

The young girl was a bundle of energy and happiness as she shared her success story of Covid-19 with everyone listening in rapt attention.

And both of them got into the ambulance for their homes, they gave everyone a hope that Covid-19 is beatable.

There were two others – a 67-year-old male, resident of Sector 15, and another 52-year-old male from Markanda town in Haryana – who have also recovered from Covid-19 but are being shifted to other departments to treat their specific medical issues.

So on the whole, the recovery rate is picking up consistently and it’s a positive indicator, the PGIMER said.

With these four recovered, the count of those declared cured from PGIMER’s Covid Hospital stands at 41.

–IANS

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