Chennai Covid Patient, 56, Recovers After 109 Days On Ventilator Support

At Chennai's Rela Hospital its a new lease of life for 56-year-old Mohamed Muddhija. His lungs suffered total damage after he had tested positive for Covid in April-end.

A Covid patient in Chennai whose lungs were fully damaged has completely recovered after being on ECMO (Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation) support or artificial lungs for 62 days. He is being touted as India's longest surviving patient on ECMO without transplantation. At Chennai's Rela Hospital it's a new lease of life for 56-year-old Mohamed Muddhija. His lungs suffered total damage after he had tested positive for Covid in April end. Doctors had put him on ECMO after the condition of his lungs deteriorated requiring 10 litres of oxygen per minute. The businessman was waitlisted for lung transplant after four weeks. That was the time the second wave peaked and he could not get the organ. However, the doctors didn't lose hope. He continued on ECMO and his lungs recovered in the ninth week. Still on his wheelchair, as he prepared to leave the hospital after being on ventilator for 109 days, a jubilant Mohamed told NDTV, "It's my second birth. Whatever they (doctors) asked me to do I did. I had put all my efforts in God's hands."