Woman, 85, discharged after 52 days of treatment


An 85-year-old woman was discharged from a hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Sunday after being treated for the novel coronavirus for 52 days.
The woman surnamed Yu was diagnosed with the virus on Feb 13. Her condition deteriorated quickly because she also suffered from high blood pressure. After her condition worsened, she was transferred to Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital on March 13.
When she arrived at the hospital's intensive care unit she had been relying on a ventilator to help her breath for three weeks, Li Jinhai, head of the medical team in charge of Yu's treatment, said.
Li is a member of the medical team sent from Jiangsu province to aid Wuhan.
"I rated the difficulty of treating Yu as 4.5 on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the easiest and 5 the most challenging. The longer people are attached to ventilators, the more difficult it is to detach them from the machines because their bodies become dependent on them. Also, using ventilators can also cause repeated infections and pneumonia that can lead to death," Li said.