H7N9 patient saved from death bed

HANGZHOU - A man who contracted H7N9 bird flu was discharged from hospital in East China's Zhejiang province on Friday after facing death for days.

The 38 year old, surnamed Cao, is the first H7N9 patient with severe symptoms to recover.

He was treated in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University in the city of Hangzhou.

"I must thank the medics. They pulled me back from the verge of death. They let me live again," Cao said while leaving the hospital in which he had stayed for 22 days.

The medics, advised by an expert panel consisting of more than 20 top doctors, decided to treat Cao with life-support systems that replaced the functions of his liver and lungs, as no H7N9 patients with symptoms as severe as his had been saved.

Nine other H7N9 patients were also discharged on Friday from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University.