87-year-old man beats COVID-19 after undergoing plasma therapy at NEIGRIHMS

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 24, 2020

An 87-year-old man, who was given plasma therapy treatment, on Saturday was discharged from the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health & Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) hospital after winning the battle against COVID-19.

The patient was admitted on September 29, after complaining of fever, breathlessness and low oxygen saturation.

His CT scan showed features of COVID pneumonia and RT-PCR was positive for SARS COV-II.

According to the hospital’s public relation officer (PRO), Dr Cornerstone Wann, the patient has senile dementia, glaucoma and benign prostatic hypertrophy on regular medications.

He was treated in the COVID ICU with non-invasive ventilation and antiviral medications. Subsequently he was put on a high flow nasal cannula.

“Since the oxygen requirement was high, plasma therapy was considered. He received two units of convalescent plasma therapy and made good progress in the rest of the 24 hours. Other COVID medicine protocols were also followed,” Dr Wann said.

He said the patient made gradual improvement and tested negative on October 17, and was transferred to the non-COVID wing of the hospital on October 18. After further improvement, the patient was discharged on Saturday.

While under treatment, the patient was attended and managed mainly by the faculty of Anaesthesiology and Critical care unit and General Medicine.

“It is encouraging to see that senior citizens with comorbidities are recovering from COVID-19 in Shillong,” Dr Wann said.

Although the number of COVID positive cases is coming down and the number of recovered cases are climbing up, the hospital’s PRO however said “We should not be complacent and should continue to take precautions as advised by the Government.”