Dr Marc Mendelson shared an announcement that left us in tears of joy; Groote Schuur Hospital’s longest COVID-19 patient has recovered and walked out of the hospital.
Cape Town, South Africa (21 July 2020) – COVID-19 patients that end up in ICU and hospital can take a fair amount of time recovering and some even require extensive rehabilitation. When a patient makes a full recovery, it is due to the collaboration of so many medical professionals and always ends in celebration.
Dr Marc Mendelson is Professor of Infectious Diseases and Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases & HIV Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town (UCT). He shared a happy update that left us in tears of joy!
Groote Schuur’s longest stay patient, who spent a total of 77 days in hospital, 54 of which were in the intensive care unit (ICU), recovered and was well enough to walk out of the hospital. Naturally, the identity of the patient has been omitted but Dr Mendelson also shared the letters given to the medical team on the frontline from UCT medical students.
Emotional day #GrooteSchuurHospital – our longest stay patient (77 days, 54 on ICU) walked out of hospital, & then 67 messages from @UCTHealthSci students to frontline workers – tearful but wonderful reading. Thank you from an equally small potato on behalf of much larger ones pic.twitter.com/OqNjapjiKn
— Marc Mendelson (@SouthAfricanASP) July 20, 2020
The letters (seen above) give thanks for the sacrifices made by frontline workers. Every day we sit in awe of the medical professionals in South Africa and all they are facing.
The longest stay patient at Groote Schuur is evidence that through resilience and hard work, lives are being saved. For that, we thank you all for what you are doing in South Africa.
by 