HYDERABAD: Nizamabad Government General Hospital’s (GGH) ICU recently got some relief after battling with critical Covid-19 cases for over a month and a half. According to Dr Kiran Madala, the head of department (HOD) of Critical Care Medicine at the hospital, the recovery rate in their ICU has gone up to around 70 per cent in May from just 50 per cent in April. Nizamabad had seen one of the highest caseloads amongst districts during the second wave.
Sighting three examples of recovery among patients aged 55 and above, whose oxygen saturation level at the time of admission was below 70 per cent, the doctor said the good outcomes are possible if timely and accurate medical intervention is provided.
“For us, the best success was to see a 70-year-old woman, who had came to the hospital with 48 per cent SpO2 (oxygen concentration) levels. She had already been on a ventilator in a private hospital where her situation deteriorated. However, with regular care, we her saturation improved to up to 93 per cent on room air and she’s now shifted to the normal ward. She had complications such as diabetes but it is under control now,” said Dr Madala.
Another patient, a 65-year-old man with 60 per cent SpO2, has recovered and is off ventilator support. “His CO-RAD (a standardised way to assess CT imaging of Covid-19 patients) score was 5 and we put him on a ventilator for three days. Now he’s maintaining a saturation of 93 per cent on room air and we have discharged him,” he added
The crucial determinant, the doctor said, is the timely help, even though oxygen level was dramatically low. “There are several takeaways from these string of successful recoveries amongst serious comorbid cases — one could be that they got admitted at the correct time, which during the peak of the wave was difficult as we saw several people coming after 6-7 days of breathlessness. They also received more medical attention, which at the peak of the wave can be divided amongst several other patients,” added Dr Kiran.