The first patient who was administered convalescent plasma therapy on compassionate grounds in Delhi has now fully recovered and was discharged on Sunday with a promising prognosis. The patient had been weaned off ventilator support seven days ago at the Max Hospital in Saket. The 49-year-old male patient from Delhi had tested positive for Covid-19 on April 4.
With moderate symptoms and a history of respiratory issues, he was admitted to the East Wing of the Max Hospital which is a Covid-19 facility, later that same day. The patient's condition deteriorated during the next few days 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. When the patient showed no improvement in his condition, his family requested the hospital for administration of plasma therapy on compassionate grounds, a first of its kind treatment modality that was used for this disease in India.
The family came forward to arrange a donor for extracting plasma. The donor had recovered from the infection (confirmed by two consecutive negative reports) three weeks before her donation and again tested Covid-19 negative at the time of donation along with other standard tests to rule out infections like Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV. The 49-year-old critically-ill patient was administered fresh plasma as a treatment modality as a side-line to standard treatment protocols on the night of April 14.
According to doctors, a single donor can donate 400ml of plasma which can save two lives, as 200ml is sufficient to treat one patient.
After receiving the treatment, the patient showed progressive improvement and by the fourth day, was weaned off ventilator support on the morning of April 18, Saturday, and continued on supplementary oxygen, thereafter. He had started taking oral feed within 24-hours of being off ventilator support. He was shifted to a room with round-the-clock monitoring on Monday after testing negative twice within 24 hours.
With sustained efforts by a team of doctors comprising Dr. Omender Singh, Dr. Deven Juneja, and Dr. Sangeeta Pathak, along with all frontline healthcare workers including junior doctors, nurses, GDAs and lab technicians among others, the patient was finally discharged today. He will be home quarantined for another two weeks as per government guidelines.