Inspiring Story on a COVID-19 Patient’s Recovery from ICU Also Shows S’pore’s Tenacity to Contain the Virus

Boon Hun

2020-02-22 , 4:53 pm

Many people have been opening up about their own Covid-19 experience recently.

There was Singapore’s first Covid-19 patient who said he didn’t want to bring Covid-19 to Singapore.

Then there was this lady who was isolated for two days at NCID.

And the Covid-19 patient who talked about her experience in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

And now, we have yet another personal account from a survivor who’ve battled it out with the virus in the ICU.

Hospitalised For Pneumonia

This 39-year-old Singaporean was initially hospitalised at Sengkang General Hospital for pneumonia on 2 Feb.

During her stay there, her condition was deteriorating rapidly and doctors worked crazily to keep her alive.

In four days, her condition became critical.

Doctors decided that she would be better-taken care of in the ICU as she’s reached the maximum oxygen support in the general ward setting.

Case Number 33

When she was wheeled into the ICU, the doctors immediately sedated her with medication.

Because they could not get enough oxygen into her blood, they knocked her out and put her on assisted breathing, hoping that she can rest her lungs.

It was around that period, her sister recalls, that the Government started conducting tests on all pneumonia patients.

On 6 Feb 2020, she was diagnosed with Covid-19 and became case number 33.

“Received Calls Until My Phone Battery Died”

Previously, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reveals the difficulty of contact tracing.

But what they revealed was tame compared to what happened to her sister.

She allegedly received so many calls from the Ministry of Health and the SPFC that her phone battery actually died on her.

Ambulances were also sent to take all family members (including a one-month-old toddler) to different hospitals for tests.

It was only after they were cleared that they were sent home to serve the 14-day quarantine order.

Now you know why Singapore’s detection capability is the best in the world, given how we go all out with contact tracing and detection.

“My Sister Has Covid-19, It Didn’t Kill Her.”

Just as the doctors in the ICU were considering to send her to Singapore General Hospital (SGH) where she can get access to an advanced life support technique called ECMO, her condition stabilised.

She was given medication usually reserved for HIV patients and they started cutting down on her sedation medication to get her off life support.

Doctors noticed that she would get agitated and start to struggle when they did that.

So they got the family to record audio messages of encouragement for her.

Her sister has words of encouragement for Covid-19 patients.

If you’re a Covid-19 patient, she said, you’re now one of the more important patients in Singapore.

She added that her sister has the disease and it “didn’t kill her”.

Sacrifices And Fatigue of Medical Workers

Case number 38 was also discharged from the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) this week.

However, she had an easier time combating the disease.

Her toughest moment was having to endure the 10-day stay in the isolation ward with no human contact.

Food was sent via a box and doctors spoke to her through the phone.

Appreciate Our Medical Workers

But she wasn’t just focused on herself during this period.

During her stay at the facility, she said that she could sense the ‘tiredness’ of the medical workers.

And yet, in spite of that, they courageously stood up in the face of the disease.

A nurse once said that he wore his uniform home as a symbol of pride in the work that he is doing.

We sincerely hope that in the coming weeks and months, Singaporeans will be able to look at them and smile instead of pushing them away.

Agree?