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Case report
One hundred eighteen days on a ventilator: a COVID-19 success story against all odds
  1. Germaine Chia1,
  2. Hannah Barrett1,
  3. Parind Patel1 and
  4. Sanooj Soni1,2
  1. 1Centre for Perioperative Medicine and Critical Care Research, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
  2. 2Division of Anaesthetics, Pain Medicine and Intensive Care, Imperial College London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sanooj Soni; s.soni{at}imperial.ac.uk

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

This article is made freely available for use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.

https://bmj.com/coronavirus/usage

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2020-239631

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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.