KANNUR: After 42 days of hospitalisation, 16 swab tests and extreme mental agony, an 81-year-old man from Cheruvanchery was finally discharged from Kannur Government Medical College Hospital, Pariyaram, on Saturday. Interestingly, he was the first of the 10 persons from his family to test positive, but the last to recover. The recovery of the man, who had undergone a bypass surgery around 20 years ago and has several health problems, including respiratory illness, has brought huge relief to the family. Discharged around 2.30pm, he was given an emotional send off by the hospital staff.
“We decided to discharge him as two consecutive tests from the same laboratory came negative,” said Dr K Sudheep, superintendent of the Kannur Government Medical College Hospital. Meanwhile, health officials are still not entirely sure about the source of his infection. On March 15, his daughter and her two children had returned from Sharjah, and officials suspect that he might have got infected from his grandson, who later tested positive.
The man was taken to a private hospital in Kannur in the last week of March after he complained of uneasiness. Later, he was shifted to another hospital where the authorities suspected it to be a Covid case. Following this, the health department officials asked him to get admitted to the Pariyaram medical college. He tested positive for Covid- 19 on Arpil 4. “His was the first asymptomatic case in the district,” said Deputy DMO M K Shaj. The situation worsened when nine more persons from family tested positive.
Health issues made his treatment tricky: Doctor
“He had many health issues which made the treatment tricky,” said Dr Sudheep. His condition worsened and was admitted to the special Covid ICU of the medical college for some days. While he was under treatment, his family members recovered and were discharged from the hospitals. One of them was his pregnant daughter-in-law, who gave birth to a baby boy at Pariyaram medical college. “We are very happy to see him going back to his house,” said principal Dr N Roy. So far, 38 persons were discharged from the hospital after getting cured, including nine pregnant women and two children below the age of two years.