Corona update: India’s first Covid-19 patient treated with plasma therapy recovers and discharged from hospital

INDIA: The first COVID-19 patient, who was administered convalescent plasma therapy at Max Hospital in Delhi’s Saket, has recovered. He was discharged on Sunday. The 49-year-old had tested positive for coronavirus on April 4 and was admitted at the COVID facility at the hospital with moderate symptoms and a history of fever and respiratory issues. His condition deteriorated and he soon required external oxygen to maintain saturation. He developed pneumonia with Type I respiratory failure and had to be put on ventilator support on April 8. With the patient showing no signs of improvement, his family requested the hospital to conduct plasma therapy. A donor was soon arranged.

On the night of April 14, the patient was administered fresh plasma as a treatment modality as a side-line to standard treatment protocols. After receiving the treatment, he showed progressive improvement. In fact, he was weaned off ventilator support on the morning of April 18. He was shifted to a room with round-the-clock monitoring after testing negative twice within 24 hours, a Max Hospital doctor told to media reporters.

The convalescent plasma therapy aims at using immune power gained by a recovered person to treat a sick person. It uses antibodies from the blood of cured patients to treat severely-ill COVID-19 patients.