Article Text
Abstract
Emerging data suggest that patients with certain comorbidities requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission for COVID-19 have a poor prognosis. This report describes a case of a patient with multiple comorbidities who contracted COVID-19 pneumonitis but was successfully weaned off invasive mechanical ventilation after 118 days, despite his admission being complicated by recurrent septic episodes and requirement for advanced cardiovascular support and renal replacement therapy. Of note, our patient received three courses of steroids in total during his ICU stay,and current literature strongly supports the use of steroids in critically unwell patients with COVID-19. To the best of our knowledge, this is the longest reported ventilated time and intensive care/hospital stay for a surviving patient with COVID-19 and highlights the importance of allowing sufficient time for clinical interventions to take effect, even when the prognosis appears bleak.
- adult intensive care
- mechanical ventilation
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Footnotes
Contributors GC, HB and SS designed and wrote the manuscript. PP contributed to the revision and approval of the final version. GC and HB performed the literature review, and SS gathered images.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer-reviewed.