The British pilot with Vietnam Airlines is recovering from COVID-19 at Cho Ray Hospital in HCM City. (Photo: VNA)HCM
City (VNS/VNA) – Doctors and scientists in Vietnam who have been
using various therapies and medicines to treat COVID-19, a new
disease that has no standard treatment protocols, have been able to save a
number of critically ill patients.
A 43-year-old patient, a with Vietnam Airlines, who was
critically ill for months, is now being treated at Cho Ray
Hospital in HCM City, where he has had a “miraculous recovery”,
according to a report from the National Steering Committee for
COVID-19 Prevention and Control.
The patient has not had to use ventilation for 60 hours, and
respiration has recovered. He is conscious and can communicate with
doctors and nurses. His kidneys, heart, and liver functions have also
improved.
However, the muscle strength of his legs remains weak. He
has physical therapy twice a day, and no longer
needs antibiotics.
As of June 15, the patient had spent 89 days
in treatment, the most of any COVID-19 patient in the country.
Before being transferred to Cho Ray, he was treated at the HCM City
Hospital for Tropical Diseases. His lungs recovered 30 percent of their
capacity at that time.
Dr Nguyen Thanh Phong, head of the HCM City Hospital for Tropical
Diseases’ department for infectious diseases D, told Vietnam News that
“During treatment, doctors at the hospital and discussed
new therapies to treat him.”
“We decided to use the anticoagulant Xarelto, which has never
been used in hospitals in Vietnam, to replace the drug heparin that had
been used when he was on the ECMO (extracorporeal membrane
oxygenation) machine, which pumps blood out of the body and removes carbon
dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back.”
“The patient was allergic to heparin, which reduces platelet count and
causes bleeding, threatening his life. So the drug heparin was
stopped,” Phong said.
The anticoagulant was used for 10 days until medicine imported from
Germany arrived.
The other severely ill COVID-19 patient at HCM City Hospital for
Tropical Diseases was transferred from the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu’s
General Hospital on May 10.
After 23 days of treatment, she recovered and was discharged on June 1.
“Her
lung was damaged more severely than the pilot’s. She suffered vaginal bleeding.
After treatment, her health was OK,” Phong said.
The National Hospital for Tropical Diseases has also treated a number of
severely ill COVID-19 patients.
In one case, the heart of a 64-year-old woman with COVID-19 from
Hanoi stopped beating on three occasions. An ECMO machine was used to
maintain her life for 17 days. She also received dialysis treatment.
At one point, her heart stopped beating for 40 minutes,
but hospital doctors provided emergency aid in time to save her.
After more than two months of treatment, her lung function improved and
she was able to communicate with the hospital’s doctors and
nurses. On May 27, she was discharged from the hospital.
Another severely ill patient, 88, was treated initially
at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases and then Bach Mai Hospital
for further treatment.
The patient, from Hung Yen province, had suffered an intracranial
haemorrhage, which paralysed one side of her
body, before testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 on April 14.
Because of her health status, the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases’
doctors and nurses had to frequently keep watch by the patient’s bedside to
adjust her medicine.
The treatment helped the patient recover. Respiration gradually improved
and ventilation was no longer needed.
The patient tested free of SARS-CoV-2 and was transferred to Bach
Mai Hospital for further treatment on May 5.
The woman was the country’s oldest COVID-19 patient treated at a
hospital.
Vietnam has had no deaths caused by COVID-19 so far, Dr Luong Ngoc Khue,
head of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment under the Ministry
of Health, said.
According to the Ministry of Health, 325
out of the 335 confirmed cases or 97 percent, have recovered and
been discharged from hospitals. The country has seen no new COVID-19 infections
in the community for 62 consecutive days./.
Source: VietnamPlus
