According to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, the patient is now in his eighth day of being disconnected from a mechanical ventilation machine and no longer requires full oxygen support during the daytime. At night, he is assisted with 0.5 litres of oxygen per minute.
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The patient (C) is able to communicate well |
At present the patient is fully conscious and is able to communicate well, while his renal, cardiac, and hepatic functions have all undergone vast improvements, in addition to his pancreatic enzymes returning to normal. Furthermore, his ability to move has gotten better, with the patient now able to get up and turn around in bed along with roughly four fifths of his leg muscles recovering after receiving physical therapy twice a day, doctors said. Despite these positives, he still needs time in order to regain the use of his leg muscles and make a complete recovery.
The patient’s latest CT scan indicates that his lung volume has returned to 90% of their original capacity.
The latest positive development indicates that the recovery of the patient’s leg muscles is almost complete and has happened at a rate faster than expected, with doctors previously believing that it would take him many weeks to be able to recover the majority of his motor functions.
The British national, who is employed by Vietnam Airlines as a pilot, has been hospitalised for the past three months since he was originally infected with COVID-19 on March 18.
When originally hospitalised the patient was in a healthy state, although his condition suddenly worsened with his lung capacity dropping rapidly, forcing him to require the aid of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine ECMO from April 6.
Since this point however his overall health has improved drastically and he is now well on the way to making a full miraculous recovery. He shared with doctors his desire to leave hospital soon to return home, adding that he is keen to return to his native Scotland.
The 43-year-old patient had been receiving treatment at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Tropical Diseases for a total 65 days, before being transferred to the city’s Cho Ray hospital on May 22.
He remains the country’s most critical COVID-19 patient and has spent the longest time receiving treatment at medical facilities for a combined total of 93 days.
Source: VOV