KANNUR: When 104-year-old Janakiyamma of Annur was brought to Pariyaram Medical College Hospital (MCH) on May 31 with low blood oxygen saturation levels, the hospital authorities had little hope that she would recover considering her age. The centenarian, however, went on to survive Covid-19, becoming the third person in the state above 100 years of age to defeat the virus. Earlier, a 110-year-old woman from Malappuram and a 105-year-old woman from Anchal, Kollam, too had survived the disease.
For the record, however, Janakiyamma is the oldest person in the district to survive the virus attack. She was discharged from the hospital around 10.30am on Friday.
According to the health department, she is the oldest person to survive the disease in the ferocious second wave of Covid-19. “All of this looks like a miracle to us as we didn’t have much hope about her recovery because of her age,” said Dr K Sudheep, superintendent, Pariyaram MCH.
“People above the age of 65 are considered to be in the high-risk category. However, we decided to give her our best as four people above the age of 90 had recovered from the disease here,” he said.
‘She reacted to medicines fast, to our surprise’
“Janakiyamma was transferred from a CFLTC at Taliparamba, where she was being treated for around one week, to here on May 31,” said the superintendent. At the MCH, she was immediately admitted to the ICU. She was given expert treatment by a team comprising doctors from general medicine, anaesthesia and pulmonary medicine departments, led by Covid nodal officer Dr K Pramod.
“To our surprise, she started reacting to the medicines fast. We were able to shift her out of the ICU on the second day itself,” said Dr Sudheep. “Maybe, it’s because of the good habits followed by the older generations that she was able to recover so fast,” he added.
At the time of discharge, Janakiyamma’s son Narayanan and daughter Savithri were present. “We have no idea from where she contracted the virus,” said Narayanan. Dr S Ajith, principal in charge of MCH, Dr Sudheep and other medical college officials were also present to see Janakiyamma off.
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