The father of two children is described by doctors as “one of the most seriously ill” Coronavirus disease The patients we saw” went home after being hospitalized for nearly a year.
The black taxi driver spent a total of eight months in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)-one of the patients with the longest hospital stay in history.
After being in a coma for five weeks and life-threatening lung failure in February, the doctor called Andrew’s family to let them know that they were considering shutting down his life support machine.
“One week before Christmas 2020, I started to feel unwell,” Andrew said. “I didn’t eat and I was losing weight, but I think it just made me feel anxious.
“When I was admitted to the hospital for Covid, I initially responded well to treatment, but then my oxygen level started to drop and I was taken for a CT scan.
“At that time I was told that I had a pneumothorax. It was a crack in the lungs.”
He continued: “I am a person, because this is the peak period of Covid and visitors are not allowed to enter, so I have to accept a lot of things.
“At this point, my eyes were swollen from crying when I called my sister Hannah and my wife Hailey, but I don’t want to tell my mom or my dad. I can’t let myself tell them.”
Long-term use of a ventilator in the intensive care unit means that Andrew must relearn to speak and walk, and he has begun to recover under the guidance of a physical therapist.
Before contracting Covid, Andrew had been receiving chemotherapy for lymph node cancer, but it has been in remission since the fall of 2020.
“I kept thinking’Why me?’,” Andrew said. “It’s very difficult to maintain a positive attitude. But I remember when I was receiving chemotherapy, I was told to look forward and set small goals for myself, and when I achieved those goals, I set another goal for myself. So this is who I am Done.”
On October 21st, hospital staff lined up in a row in the corridor of Andrew’s Intensive Care Unit and applauded him as he left the building.
Dr. Dan Harding, a medical consultant for intensive care at the hospital, said: “We are all very proud and happy that Andrew was finally able to return home after 10 months in the hospital.
“He is one of the most seriously ill Covid patients we have ever seen, so seeing him walking out of the hospital with his family is a very happy and exciting day for me and all the other staff involved in his care.”
