Video: People's Daily
Two elderly pneumonia patients infected with the novel coronavirus who were previously in critical condition were discharged from Renmin Hospital of Hunan University. On Tuesday, 57-year-old Grandma Li was taken home by her family for further recovery after 28 days of treatment in the intensive care unit. On Monday, 62-year-old Grandma Chen was discharged from the second ward of the Department of Critical Care Medicine of the same hospital after being treated for 18 days.
On January 6, Grandma Li, after suffering from cold and fever for 9 days with her body temperature reaching 39 C and symptoms such as cough, chest distress and shortness of breath, was rushed to the emergency department of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University. A series of tests showed that her lungs were infected by viral pneumonia. Due to her failure to recover after being treated for fever and infection, she was admitted to the Department of Critical Care Medicine of the hospital that night.
Yu Zhui, deputy director of the Department of Critical Medicine, was in charge of her care. Judging by cases of viral pneumonia of unknown origin he had treated before, he determined there was a risk of infection in her family and human-to-human transmission. Though the outbreak of the novel coronavirus had not exploded at that time, Yu suspected that the pneumonia suffered by Grandma Li was infectious. He decided to transfer Grandma Li to a special isolation ward.
Grandma Li’s condition worsened beyond everyone’s expectations. Only 3 hours after getting into the Department of Critical Medicine, her dyspnea continued to worsen, and she was faced with the risk of death from respiratory failure at any time. Yu immediately instructed his team members to conduct an urgent trachea intubation, with a ventilator assisting her breathing, which temporarily saved her life.
Further examination found that Grandma Li suffered from diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and others, and had cirrhosis for more than 30 years, which brought significant complications to her treatment. Yu, along with his medical team, continued to treat Grandma Li using comprehensive measures in order to stabilize the patient’s condition.
Photo: People's Daily
Seeing Grandma Li’s muscles showed signs of atrophy after lying on the bed for 13 days, Wang Shasha, the head nurse of the department, encouraged Li to do exercises in bed for rehabilitation and asked her family to visit her via video link and to encourage her to fight the disease.
On January 22, after the laboratory of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University carried out its first batch of novel coronavirus nucleic acid tests in Hubei Province, Grandma Li was tested for the first time, and the result was positive.
After that, Grandma Li became better and better. At the end of January, she was able to eat on her own, with a clear mind, stable vital signs and improvement with her lung infection. After negative results in two nucleic acid tests, she was allowed to be discharged from the hospital. On Tuesday, she was taken home by her family for quarantine and further recovery.
Judging from the treatment of Grandma Li, Yu concluded that the careful observation and quick decisions of the diagnosis and treatment group not only saved her life, but also avoided the infection of medical staff.
According to Yu, the core symptom of pneumonia patients severely infected by new coronavirus is refractory hypoxemia. The key to successful treatment is to help patients survive the refractory hypoxemia and avoid multiple organ damage.
On January 15, 62-year-old Grandma Chen, who also had a severe case of novel coronavirus, had different symptoms from those of Grandma Li. She had exhibited “8 days of intermittent fever with nausea and vomiting,” and was admitted to the department of gastroenterology of the same hospital. A chest CT showed that her lungs were infected, indicating there was possibility of viral pneumonia. After consultation with respiratory experts, it was determined that antiviral treatment should be conducted amidst isolation.
After various treatments, Chen were not getting better, and had new symptoms, such as chest distress and dyspnea. On January 18, after an examination indicating that she had respiratory failure and an aggravated infection in her lungs, she was suspected of novel coronavirus infection.
A medical team led by Wei Jie, director of the Department of Critical Medicine, and the medical and nursing group led by head nurse Tian Dan, treated her according to her symptoms in a timely manner. With the meticulous care of the medical staff, Grandma Chen gradually rehabilitated and was discharged from the hospital on Monday, after two negative RNA test results for the presence of the novel coronavirus on Sunday and Monday.
“Many thanks to the doctors, nurses and Renmin Hospital. Without their help, I would have died!” Grandma Chen stressed before leaving hospital.
Wei concluded that the vast majority of novel coronavirus cases remained mild, and most are elderly or patients with other diseases. She stressed that panic is not necessary while fighting the epidemic.
(Compiled by Cao Mengqi)